Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what recent discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Justice on the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to create domestic abuse-aggravated offences.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

I regularly meet with the Lord Chancellor to discuss the Government’s mission to halve VAWG and tackle domestic abuse.

I am aware of Private Members Bill tabled by the Honourable Member for Eastbourne.

I will carefully consider both the merits and risks of creating domestic abuse-aggravated offences and respond via the usual parliamentary procedure.

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 protect properties in North Shropshire constituency against surface water flooding.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

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

The Environment Agency has strategic overview for all flood risk in England, however, it is for Lead Local Flood Authorities to develop local interventions to reduce surface water flood risk for communities.

The Environment Agency continues to work closely with Shropshire Council, who are the Lead Local Flood Authority on North Shropshire.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what methodologies the Rural Payments Agency uses to determine the set proportion of total eligible farm area provided funding.

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

The Rural Payments Agency uses both the Environment Agency and Met Office data to establish which farm businesses may be eligible for Farming Recovery Payment. The data on river flooding and exceptional rainfall allows the agency to identify affected land.

The full methodology can be found in the link below.

Our approach to Farming Recovery payments – Farming.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether changes have been made to the criteria of the Farming Recovery Fund since Storms Ashley and Bert.

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

October 2023 to March 2024 has been recorded as the wettest six-month period ever recorded. The Farming Recovery Fund used data from Environment Agency and remote imagery on high river levels during Storm Babet (October 2023) and Storm Henk (January 2024). These were the two largest storms in this period. Met Office data was used to identify local authority areas in England which experienced exceptional rainfall. These data were used to identify eligibility for the Farming Recovery Fund which has now made one off recovery payments of £57.5 million to over 12,700 farm businesses to help farmers most affected by the exceptional flooding and wet weather. Eligibility for the Farming Recovery Fund does not include Storms Ashley nor Bert.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the eligibility criteria for the Frequently Flooded Allowance on flood risks in low population rural areas.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer to their previous question 20325 on 2 January.

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 a recent assessment of the adequacy of existing (a) culvert and (b) land drainage responsibility legislation.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Defra keeps all legislation under review. Between 2022 and 2024, Defra undertook a review of the statutory powers and responsibilities to map, monitor, inspect and maintain all flood and coastal erosion risk assets, including culverts. This review also considered powers within the Land Drainage Act 1991. The review will be examined by the new Government and likely published in early 2025.

We expect those responsible for all assets including risk management authorities, other public and community organisations, the private sector and riparian owners to invest in ongoing maintenance and ensure timely repairs where necessary.

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 plans to announce new projects funded by the Frequently Flooded Allowance in the next year.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

We are investing £2.4 billion in 2024/25 and 2025/26 to improve flood resilience by maintaining, repairing and building flood defences. The list of projects to receive government funding in 2025/26 will be consented in the usual way through Regional Flood and Coastal Committees with local representation.

Longer term funding decisions will be made at the next Spending Review.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many of the houses bought from Annington are in (a) North Shropshire constituency, (b) Shropshire, (c) Staffordshire and (d) Telford and Wrekin.

Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)

The table below shows the number of properties bought by the Ministry of Defence from Annington Property Ltd located in North Shropshire, South Shropshire, Staffordshire, Telford, and Wrekin constituencies.

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 effectiveness of the methodologies used by the Rural Payments Agency for deciding which areas of farmland are eligible for the Farming Recovery Fund.

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

The Rural Payments Agency uses both the Environment Agency and Met Office data to establish which farm businesses may be eligible for Farming Recovery Payment. The data on river flooding and exceptional rainfall allows the agency to identify affected land.

The full methodology can be found in the link below.

Our approach to Farming Recovery payments – Farming.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the mean average waiting time has been for PIP applications in each of the last five years.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

We are committed to ensuring that people can access financial support through Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in a timely manner and reducing customer journey times for PIP claimants is a priority for the department. We always aim to make an award decision as quickly as possible, taking into account the need to review all available evidence.

The following figures are for normal rules new claims only.

Median PIP application clearance times are also available on a monthly basis as part of the PIP Official Statistics quarterly release. The latest release, with data to October 2024, is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/675bf09bb915d092055a01d8/tables-pip-statistics-to-october-2024-eng-wales.ods

Table 1A in this release shows the median average clearance times for normal rules new claims.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the methodology used to decide which areas are eligible for funding under the Frequently Flooded Allowance.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

This Government is investing £2.4bn in 2024/25-2025/26 to improve flood resilience. The projects to receive Government funding in 2025/26 will be consented over the coming months in the usual way through Regional Flood and Coastal Committees with local representation.

We will consult in the new year on a review of the formula that allocates flood defence funding to ensure the challenges facing businesses and rural and coastal communities are adequately taken into account.

The process used to allocate funding to floods projects in the investment programme follows a consistent approach that aims to reduce flood risk and secure benefits. The approach follows Green Book guidance on value for money.

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 produced an impact assessment for projects funded by the Frequently Flooded Allowance.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

This Government is investing £2.4bn in 2024/25-2025/26 to improve flood resilience. The projects to receive Government funding in 2025/26 will be consented over the coming months in the usual way through Regional Flood and Coastal Committees with local representation.

We will consult in the new year on a review of the formula that allocates flood defence funding to ensure the challenges facing businesses and rural and coastal communities are adequately taken into account.

The process used to allocate funding to floods projects in the investment programme follows a consistent approach that aims to reduce flood risk and secure benefits. The approach follows Green Book guidance on value for money.

Blue Monday

Highland hospital transport

US trade and impact assessments

Sharon Scrivens

First Bus price fares in Somerset

Protecting children from sexual abuse

Government response to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report on communication of changes to women’s State Pension age

Healthy lunches

Reform of electoral law

Found: The other bill is a private member’s bill sponsored by Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat MP for North Shropshire

Found: _2 Helen Morgan Liz Jarvis Dr Danny Chambers .

Found: _2 Helen Morgan Liz Jarvis Dr Danny Chambers .

Found: The other bill is a private member’s bill sponsored by Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat MP for North Shropshire

Found: New Amendments: 2 to 4 _2 Helen Morgan Liz Jarvis Dr Danny Chambers ★.