Edward Morello

We want more trade opportunities for British farmers to grow their businesses, including for the more than 1,000 commercial farm holdings in West Dorset. Our FTAs will help open new long term potential export markets. For example, we are pressing ahead with our accession to the CPTPP which enters into force on 15 December. This will facilitate easier market access for agriculture products for which Dorset is celebrated, such as by reducing tariffs on UK dairy in countries such as Chile and Japan.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) promotes and supports investment opportunities across all of the UK. In Dorset, DBT has a strong relationship with Dorset Council and proactively promotes the county’s sector strengths, particularly in areas such as AgriTech, Advanced Manufacturing and Defence.

The Government confirmed in the Autumn Budget that it will continue to fund Growth Hubs, including the Dorset Growth Hub, in 2025/26. This will provide key support for local businesses, including those in West Dorset. The forthcoming Industrial Strategy will also help guide investment in areas across the UK based on unique economic opportunities and advantages.

Rural areas offer significant potential for growth and are central to our economy. DBT works with other departments such as Defra, helping people living and working in rural areas to realise the full potential of rural businesses and communities placing them at the heart of our policymaking.

Our people-first focus will empower local leaders to make the best decisions for their regions, whether that is in rural or urban areas, by taking a place-based approach to transport. The Government has recently launched its plan to develop an Integrated National Transport Strategy, setting out how transport should be designed, built and operated.

DBT is supporting companies like Baboo Gelato, based just outside Dorchester, to take their first steps into exporting.

UK businesses, including those in West Dorset constituency, can access DBT’s wealth of export support via Great.gov.uk. This comprises a online support offer and our wider network of support, including Export Champions, the Export Academy, our International Markets network, and UK Export Finance. Alongside this, our International Trade Advisers use their extensive experience of exporting and knowledge of the needs of SMEs in their sectors and regions to provide one-to-one tailored support to businesses.

Pubs, including in West Dorset, are at the heart of our communities and play a vital role in supporting economic growth across the UK. That’s why it is important for us to act on the challenges that they face, by reforming business rates to level the playing field for all businesses from hospitality to the high street. The Chancellor has confirmed that she will be making decisions on tax policy at the Budget on 30 October.

We have established Skills England, a new partnership with employers at its heart and will transform the existing Apprenticeship Levy into a more flexible Growth and Skills Levy to support business and boost opportunity.

The Government recognises the importance of time of use tariffs, and we are putting in place reforms such as Smart Metering and the Market-wide Half Hourly Settlement to support the growth of these products. Tariff setting is a matter for suppliers, including the setting of peak and off-peak tariffs, and is regulated by Ofgem, including through the price cap which already has a variant to accommodate multi-rate tariffs such as Economy 7.

I regularly engage with stakeholders, including consumer groups and energy suppliers, to ensure that the sector meets the differing needs of consumers.

The Government recognises the importance of time of use tariffs, and we are putting in place reforms such as Smart Metering and the Market-wide Half Hourly Settlement to support the growth of these products. Tariff setting is a matter for suppliers, including the setting of peak and off-peak tariffs, and is regulated by Ofgem, including through the price cap which already has a variant to accommodate multi-rate tariffs such as Economy 7.

I regularly engage with stakeholders, including consumer groups and energy suppliers, to ensure that the sector meets the differing needs of consumers.

The Government recognises the importance of time of use tariffs, and we are putting in place reforms such as Smart Metering and the Market-wide Half Hourly Settlement to support the growth of these products. Tariff setting is a matter for suppliers, and is regulated by Ofgem, including through the price cap which already has a variant to accommodate multi-rate tariffs such as Economy 7.

I regularly engage with stakeholders, including consumer groups and energy suppliers, to ensure that the sector meets the differing needs of consumers.

Technology and innovation are essential to reaching clean power by 2030 and are a critical part of the Government’s deployment plans for achieving the Clean Energy Superpower Mission.

The Southwest of England is playing an important role in advancing clean technologies, with over £120m committed to the region through our Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP).

Government recognises the important role community groups play in our efforts to tackle climate change and offers support for the sector. Great British Energy’s Local Power Plan will support communities to roll out small and medium scale renewable energy projects, providing commercial, technical and project‑planning assistance, increasing their capability and capacity to build a pipeline of successful projects in their local areas. Government also supports the sector through the £10 million Community Energy Fund, which allows both rural and urban communities across England to access grant funding to develop local renewable energy projects for investment.

DSIT is accelerating innovation through initiatives like the Higher Education Innovation Funding, currently £280m a year, enabling universities across England to support innovative new businesses in their local areas. Additionally, through the £12.2m Digital Growth Grant, DSIT supports the Ecosystem Partnership Programme which awards funding to regional organisations delivering support in their local ecosystems. This grant also supports a cohort of AgriTech businesses as part of the Industry Bridge programme, connecting startups with corporate partners, delivered by Codebase.

According to the independent website ThinkBroadband.com, over 96% of premises in the West Dorset constituency have access to superfast broadband speeds (>=30 Mbps) and 53% can access a gigabit-capable (>1000 Mbps) connection.

To improve this further,Wessex Internet is delivering a £33.5 million contract under Project Gigabit, to bring gigabit-capable broadband to over 21,000 more premises across Dorset and South Somerset, including in West Dorset.

Overall, 36 Project Gigabit contracts, with a total value of over £1.9 billion, have been signed to date, to bring gigabit-capable broadband to over 1 million rural homes and businesses.

Poor internet access can have a devastating impact on rural and urban communities alike, which is why the government is determined to improve access and tackle digital exclusion. Digital connectivity is an important driver of economic growth. In 2022, productivity in rural areas was 86% of the average for England, a gap which improved internet access could reduce.

The Government is committed to improving broadband access in rural areas. Government’s £5 billion programme, Project Gigabit, is delivering gigabit capable connectivity for millions of rural homes.

Government is committed to achieving nationwide gigabit broadband, removing barriers to commercial deployment and, where necessary, providing subsidy for hard-to-reach premises through Project Gigabit. According to the independent website ThinkBroadband, 85% of UK premises have access to gigabit-capable connections.

Government wants rural areas to benefit from mobile connectivity. The Shared Rural Network is improving coverage in rural areas, with 94.9% of the UK landmass having 4G coverage from at least one operator.

Our ambition is for all populated areas to have high-quality standalone 5G by 2030. We are committed to having the right policy and regulatory framework to support this.

I am aware that people’s experience on the ground does not always match Ofcom’s version of mobile signal, and I recently wrote to Ofcom, asking them to set out steps to improve their reporting.

This Government is committed to supporting every aspect of women’s sport, including grassroots football, and ensuring all women and girls, no matter their background, have access to high quality sport.

The Government is providing £123 million of funding for the UK-wide Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme in 2024/25 alongside our ongoing investment into Sport England. This includes long term investment of £26.1 million into the FA to invest in community football initiatives that will benefit everyone, including women and girls, across the country, including in West Dorset.

My officials and I have met with a range of heritage bodies since July and this has included discussions on the future of the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme.

The Department has received correspondence from religious organisations regarding the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme and the views of their congregations and communities as a result of funding. A couple of Church of England bishops have also approached me at events and mentioned the scheme.

My officials and I have met with a range of heritage bodies since July and this has included discussions on the future of the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme.

The Department has received correspondence from religious organisations regarding the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme and the views of their congregations and communities as a result of funding. A couple of Church of England bishops have also approached me at events and mentioned the scheme.

The Government is committed to improving access to high quality sport and physical activity opportunities for everyone, including those with disabilities. This is central to achieving the aims set out in the Government’s manifesto around the Health and Opportunity Missions. The Government will support more people to be active wherever they live, whether in cities or the countryside.

We recognise that grassroots sports clubs are at the heart of communities up and down the country. These provide important places for people of all ages to be active, bring communities together and improve their mental and physical wellbeing.

That is why this Government has committed to continue funding for grassroots facilities. £123 million will be invested UK-wide in grassroots facilities via the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme throughout 2024/25, working with our delivery partner, the Football Foundation.

The Government is committed to improving access to high quality sport and physical activity opportunities for everyone, including those with disabilities. This is central to achieving the aims set out in the Government’s manifesto around the Health and Opportunity Missions. The Government will support more people to be active wherever they live, whether in cities or the countryside.

We recognise that grassroots sports clubs are at the heart of communities up and down the country. These provide important places for people of all ages to be active, bring communities together and improve their mental and physical wellbeing.

That is why this Government has committed to continue funding for grassroots facilities. £123 million will be invested UK-wide in grassroots facilities via the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme throughout 2024/25, working with our delivery partner, the Football Foundation.

This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.

The department is providing an increase of almost £1 billion for local authorities’ high needs budgets in the 2025/26 financial year, bringing total high needs funding for children and young people with complex SEND to £11.9 billion.

The department is now in the process of calculating indicative high needs funding allocations for local authorities next year through the national funding formula, which it expects to publish shortly.

This government is taking time to consider the funding formula that the department uses to allocate funding for children and young people with SEND. It is important that there is a fair education funding system, that directs funding to where it is needed, including funding for provision in rural areas.

This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.

The department wants to drive a consistent and inclusive approach to supporting children and young people with SEND through early identification, effective support, high quality teaching and effective allocation of resources.

Educational psychologists play a critical role in the support available to children and young people, including those with SEND. To improve early identification and provision of support, the department is taking measures to help education settings have better access to educational psychology services by investing in the training of educational psychologists. The department is investing over £21 million to train 400 more educational psychologists from this year. This builds on the £10 million which is already being invested for the over 200 educational psychologists who began their training in September 2023.

High quality teaching is central to ensuring that pupils with SEND are given the best possible opportunity to achieve in their education and the department is committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers over the course of this parliament. To support all teachers, the department is implementing a range of teacher training reforms to ensure teachers have the skills to support all pupils to succeed, including those with SEND. On 1 September 2024, the government introduced a new mandatory leadership level national professional qualification (NPQ) for special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs). The NPQ will play a key role in improving outcomes for children and young people with SEND by ensuring SENCOs consistently receive high quality, evidence-based training. This is crucial given the central role SENCOs play in supporting pupils with SEND.

The government has also launched an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review to look closely at the key challenges to attainment that children and young people face, in particular those with SEND, to ensure that all pupils benefit from a rich and broad curriculum.

The department is providing an increase of almost £1 billion for high needs budgets in the 2025/26 financial year, bringing total high needs funding for children and young people with complex SEND to £11.9 billion. This funding will help local authorities and schools with the increasing costs of supporting children and young people with SEND.

The department wants to ensure that, where required, education, health and care (EHC) plan assessments are progressed promptly and, if needed, plans are issued as quickly as possible so that children and young people can access the support they need.

Local authorities have a statutory responsibility to assess whether children and young people have special educational needs that require an EHC plan. EHC plans must be issued within 20 weeks of the needs assessment commencing so that children and young people can access the support they need. In 2023, there were 138,200 initial requests for an EHC plan and 90,500 assessments took place. 50.3% of new EHC plans in 2023 were issued within 20 weeks.

The department knows that local authorities have seen an increase in the number of assessment requests and that more needs to be done to ensure that local areas deliver effective and timely services. This includes better communication with schools and families.

The department continues to monitor and work closely with local authorities that have issues with EHC plan timeliness. Where there are concerns about a local authority’s capacity to make the required improvements, we help the local authority to identify the barriers and put in place an effective recovery plan. This includes, where needed, securing specialist SEND Adviser support to help identify the barriers to EHC plan process timeliness and put in place practical plans for recovery.

Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) carried out a full SEND inspection of Dorset local area in March 2024. Their published report found that the local area partnership’s SEND arrangements typically lead to positive experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND and the local area partnership is taking action where improvements are needed.

Dorset are not subject to formal intervention from the department or NHS England and the next full area SEND inspection by Ofsted and the CQC will be within approximately five years.

Reliable technology can offer significant benefits to everyone who works and learns in schools and trusts. The department is working with commercial providers to accelerate gigabit capable internet rollout to schools, alongside a joint investment from the department and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

In collaboration with Building Digital UK (BDUK), the department is jointly funding fibre upgrades to 833 schools across England by the end of 2025. This is in addition to the 683 delivered by BDUK programmes with the department between 2017 and 2021.

Additionally, Connect the Classroom is supporting over 3,700 schools to upgrade their wireless networks, including some schools in West Dorset. So far, the programme has delivered over £200 million of funding to improve connectivity for over one million pupils nationally.

To widen participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in schools, the department is funding the Stimulating Physics Network (SPN) and Subject Knowledge for Physics Teaching (SKPT) programmes.

The SPN promotes the take-up of A level physics and provides coaching support to increase the profile of physics and retention of physics teachers. There are a total of 285 partner schools in England, supported by 42 coaches based in SPN-led schools and regional network staff, to ensure there is a good offer across the country for SPN. An SPN-led school in Hampshire covers support for schools across Hampshire and Dorset.

SKPT, which has practical sessions delivered across the country, aims to provide training to non-physics teachers to allow them to become specialists in physics. Rural schools that do not have access to local existing SKPT provision can contact the Ogden Trust, who run the SKPT programme, as there are limited bespoke packages of support for such schools.

Schools in West Dorset can receive teacher continuing professional development (CPD) on mathematics curriculum pedagogy and subject knowledge via the Jurassic Maths Hub, one of 40 maths hubs across England who offer school-to-school maths teacher CPD from reception to post-16.

The department also funds the Advanced Mathematics Support Programme, supporting teachers to improve the teaching of AS and A level mathematics, AS and A level further mathematics and core mathematics. Support is focused in disadvantaged areas and areas with low post-16 mathematics participation so that, whatever their location, background or gender, students can access high-quality mathematics teaching.

Additionally, the department funds the National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE), which provides free CPD and resources to improve the quality of computing education and increase participation in computing at GCSE and A level. The NCCE manages a network of over 30 computing hubs across England to support schools and colleges in all areas of the country. NCCE CPD is delivered either in-person or online to reduce the need for travel, and hubs schedule courses based on demand and local attendance patterns.

The NCCE has a particular focus on reaching schools in education investment areas. Dorset has been identified as one of the NCCE’s highest priority areas and is receiving an additional focus as part of the ‘Targeted School Engagement Programme’. The Devon and Dorset hub is working closely with the education team at Dorset Council to embed NCCE provision across the area and promoting wider activities, including last September’s National Coding Week. Contact details for the Devon and Dorset hub are available from the NCCE’s Teach Computing website here: https://teachcomputing.org.

Ofwat, the independent economic regulator, sets specific performance targets for companies in the five-yearly price review. Where companies fail to meet these targets, including pollution incidents, they must reimburse customers through lower water bills.

Additionally, under new proposals set out by this government on the Guaranteed Standards Scheme, households and businesses will be entitled to higher payments from water companies when basic services are not met. This includes payments for incidents of internal and external sewer flooding to a customer’s property.

On 23 October, the Secretary of State and the Welsh Government launched an Independent Commission into the water sector and its regulation, in what is expected to form the largest review of the industry since privatisation. These recommendations will form the basis of further legislation to attract long-term investment and clean up our waters for good.

For too long, investment has not kept pace with the challenges of an ageing infrastructure system, a rapidly growing population, and climate change. Bills will therefore now need to rise to invest in our crumbling infrastructure and deliver cleaner waterways.

As the independent economic regulator, it is Ofwat's responsibility to independently scrutinise water company business plans and ensure the prices water companies charge their customers are fair and proportionate. Ofwat will therefore publish their final determinations for Price Review 2024 on 19 December, which will set company expenditure and customer bills for 2025-2030.

During its first week of office, the Government announced funding for vital infrastructure investment is ringfenced and can only be spent on upgrades benefiting customers and the environment. Ofwat will therefore ensure when money for investment is not spent, companies refund customers, with money never allowed to be diverted for bonuses, dividends or salary increases.

For too long, investment has not kept pace with the challenges of an ageing infrastructure system, a rapidly growing population, and climate change. Bills will therefore now need to rise to invest in our crumbling infrastructure and deliver cleaner waterways.

As the independent economic regulator, it is Ofwat's responsibility to independently scrutinise water company business plans and ensure the prices water companies charge their customers are fair and proportionate. Ofwat will therefore publish their final determinations for Price Review 2024 on 19 December, which will set company expenditure and customer bills for 2025-2030.

During its first week of office, the Government announced funding for vital infrastructure investment is ringfenced and can only be spent on upgrades benefiting customers and the environment. Ofwat will therefore ensure when money for investment is not spent, companies refund customers, with money never allowed to be diverted for bonuses, dividends or salary increases.

The Government is committed to funding the Rural Housing Enabler programme until 31 March 2025. It is also providing over £5 billion total housing investment in 2025-26 to boost the supply of new housing, including in rural areas. This includes a £500 million top up to the Affordable Homes Programme. Other funding allocations for individual programmes for the next financial year will be determined in upcoming months through the department’s business planning exercise and announced in due course.

Defra’s farming budget will be £2.4 billion in 2025/26. This will include the largest ever budget directed at sustainable food production and nature’s recovery in our country’s history: £1.8 billion for environmental land management schemes. This funding will deliver improvements to food security, biodiversity, carbon emissions, water quality, air quality and flood resilience.

Environmental Land Management schemes will remain at the centre of our offer for farmers, with the Sustainable Farming Incentive, Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier and Landscape Recovery all continuing. These offer funding streams for farmers to make their businesses more sustainable and resilient, including those who have been often ignored such as small, grassland, upland and tenant farmers.

We will work with the sector to continue to roll out, improve and evolve these schemes, to make them work for farming and nature.