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Written Question
Integrated Care Boards: Finance
Monday 24th February 2025

Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)

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 provide additional funding to ICBs.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

At the Autumn Budget, the Government announced a £22.6 billion increase in day-to-day health spending and a £3.1 billion increase in the capital budget over 2024/25 and 2025/26. The recently published recurrent integrated care board core allocations will grow by 4.1% in 2025/26, compared to 2024/25. These growths exclude funding allocations that are made after convergence, including additional elective funding and transfers in from the Service Development Fund, which are treated separately.


Written Question
Agriculture: Finance
Friday 21st February 2025

Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure long-term stability in the agricultural budget.

Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

In the October 2024 budget, we committed £5 billion for farming over two years, including £1.8 billion for our environmental land management schemes - the largest ever budget directed at sustainable food production and nature’s recovery in our country’s history. Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes remain at the centre of our offer for farmers and nature, and we have more than half of farmers in an ELM scheme, putting us on the path to a more resilient and sustainable farming sector.

Spending on farming in future financial years will be confirmed as part of the next spending review.


Written Question
Dairy Farming
Friday 21st February 2025

Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)

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 Andersons' report Andersons Outlook 2025, published on 5 November 2024, whether he has made an assessment of the reasons for the decline in dairy producers between April 2023 and April 2024; and what steps he is taking to support the sustainability of dairy farms.

Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

This Government recognises that food security is national security, and that it requires a resilient and healthy food system that works with nature and supports farmers. That is why we are introducing new deals for farmers to boost rural economic growth and strengthen food security.

While the Andersons Outlook 2025 report highlights that dairy producer numbers in Great Britain declined by 5.8% to 7,130 between April 2023 and April 2024, it also shows that UK milk production remained largely unchanged at around 15b litres per annum. Industry consolidation and productivity gains have kept milk production broadly stable despite declining producer numbers.

Ensuring fairness in supply chains is key for UK dairy farmers in supporting the sustainability of the sector. The Fair Dealing Obligations (Milk) Regulations 2024 apply to new dairy contracts from 9 July 2024 and all dairy contracts from 9 July 2025. These regulations improve fairness and transparency, requiring clear terms on pricing, termination, and prohibiting unilateral changes.

In addition, the Dairy Export Taskforce, an industry/government partnership, is focused on boosting export growth in the dairy sector. This included the organisation of a successful Government funded dairy showcase for international buyers in the autumn of 2024.


Written Question
Agriculture: Finance
Friday 21st February 2025

Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department plans to take to ensure that the full farming budget is allocated to frontline agricultural support and does not result in a real-terms funding reduction for farmers.

Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

In the October 2024 budget, we committed £5 billion for farming over two years, including £1.8 billion for our environmental land management schemes - the largest ever budget directed at sustainable food production and nature’s recovery in our country’s history. Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes remain at the centre of our offer for farmers and nature, and we have more than half of farmers in an ELM scheme, putting us on the path to a more resilient and sustainable farming sector.

Spending on farming in future financial years will be confirmed as part of the next spending review.


Written Question
Delivery Services: Standards
Wednesday 19th February 2025

Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to ensure parcel delivery companies are held to account when they have (a) extremely low satisfaction rates and (b) poor reviews.

Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

Ofcom is the independent regulator for the postal sector with the responsibility and powers to regulate postal services.

Ofcom’s approach to protecting consumers is to include a condition that all postal operators must establish, make available, and comply with transparent, simple, and inexpensive procedures for dealing with consumers’ complaints about the services they receive.

Ofcom is committed to ongoing monitoring of operators’ performance and will consider enforcement action or further regulation to protect consumers.


Written Question
Home Education
Tuesday 18th February 2025

Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to (a) support home educators and (b) protect children removed from mainstream schools for malicious reasons.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department is introducing the first ever duty on local authorities to provide support for home educating families as part of the Children not in School measures of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. The support duty ensures an established baseline level of support across all English local authorities, to ensure that wherever home educating families live they can have access to a reliable level of support from their local authority, if they choose to access it.

The department’s existing elective home education guidance for parents already sets out to help parents understand their obligations and rights in relation to elective home education.

This government is clear that any form of off-rolling is unacceptable, and we will work with Ofsted to tackle this. We are committed to strengthening accountability through reforming Ofsted to enhance the inspection regime by replacing a single headline grade with a new report card system, telling parents clearly how schools are performing, and introduce a new annual review of safeguarding, attendance, and pupil movement, including off-rolling.


Written Question
Agriculture: Holiday Accommodation
Tuesday 18th February 2025

Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department has taken steps to support farmers who have diversified into holiday accommodations to mitigate the potential financial impact of changes to the Furnished Holiday Lettings tax regime.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government will abolish the Furnished Holiday Lets (FHL) tax regime from April 2025. This will equalises the tax treatment of FHL and non-FHL landlords’ income and gains, making the tax system fairer.

Tax reliefs will still be available to landlords, including farmers, who provide furnished holiday letting services, including mortgage interest relief at 20 per cent and relief for the replacement of domestic items. These reliefs will be at the same level as those available to landlords who provide long-term residential lets.

Individual landlords can also benefit from the income tax Personal Allowance, which is the amount of income that can be earned before income tax is paid (£12,570 in 2024-25).


Written Question
Cars: Taxation
Tuesday 18th February 2025

Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 5.91 of the Autumn Budget 2024, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the reclassification of double cab pick-ups with a payload of one tonne or more as cars for tax purposes on farmers from April 2025.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

Following recent case law, Double Cab Pick Ups must be treated as cars, rather than goods vehicles, for certain tax purposes, based on their primary suitability. The government will not legislate to treat DCPUs as goods vehicles as this would depart from the broader principles underpinning the Court of Appeal’s judgement, and be a significant tax break worth hundreds of millions per year.

As per paragraph 5.91, this will not affect the capital allowances treatment of anyone who already owns a DCPU; anyone who purchases a DCPU before April 2025 will still benefit from the previous tax treatment. For Benefit in Kind, anyone who has accessed a DCPU as a company car before April 2025 will not be impacted until the sooner of disposal of the vehicle, April 2029 or when their lease expires; and employers that have purchased, leased, or ordered a DCPU before 6 April 2025 will also be able to benefit from the previous treatment, until the earlier of disposal, April 2029, or when the lease expires.

There are alternatives available to farmers, which provide the same off-road and haulage capabilities and are still treated as goods vehicles, such as single cab pick-ups and 4 x 4 vans.


Written Question
National Landscapes: Camping Sites
Tuesday 18th February 2025

Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to (a) prevent the establishment of pop-up campsites in Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and (b) ensure that such developments do not negatively impact the local environment and biodiversity.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

A nationally set permitted development right allows for the temporary use of land for recreational campsites for up to 60 days per calendar year.

Where it is necessary to protect the local amenity of an area, the local planning authority can consult the local community on removing a permitted development right by making an Article 4 direction. Planning applications would then be required, and the local planning authority can determine them in accordance with its local plan and in consultation with neighbours.

The government continues to keep permitted development rights under review.


Written Question
Parcels: Theft
Tuesday 18th February 2025

Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department has taken to prevent parcel thieves taking parcels which have already been delivered to people’s homes.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)

This Government is committed to reducing crime and restoring public confidence in policing and we are getting on with this through our Safer Streets Mission, including through delivery of a Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee. As part of this, each neighbourhood will have a named, contactable officer dealing with local issues that communities are experiencing.

In January 2025, the Government announced £200 million in the 2025/26 financial year to support the first steps of delivering 13,000 neighbourhood personnel, ensuring the police are visible in every community, deterring and preventing crime.

A key part of making acquisitive crime, including theft, less attractive to criminals is making stolen goods harder to sell on. We are working closely with policing and academic leads to examine what more can be done to tackle the disposal markets for stolen goods and reduce the ability to profit from this criminality.