Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many ECO4 installations are incomplete due to installer insolvency in England the last 12 months; and what consumer protection and redress mechanisms are available to households supported through the ECO4 scheme where an installer has entered administration leaving works incomplete or defective.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Due to the level of non-compliance found for EWI measures, the Government is offering a comprehensive on-site audit to all households where external wall insulation (EWI) was installed under ECO4 or GBIS. This check will be provided at no cost to the consumer.
Should any issues requiring action be found, these should be remediated by the original installer. Where the installer has ceased trading, protections under the installation guarantee policy should be invoked.
All measures installed under current government schemes are covered by a guarantee.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the number of duty solicitors available in rural areas.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
It is vital that those who need legal aid can access it wherever they live in the UK.
The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) is responsible for commissioning duty solicitor services and the day-to-day administration of the court and police station duty schemes. This includes keeping membership records, allocating slots and producing and maintaining duty solicitor rotas. The LAA monitors membership across individual duty schemes. Information about duty solicitor volumes broken down by individual scheme is published as part of the LAA’s Official Statistics.
The LAA considers that all police station and court slots are adequately covered for each duty scheme in England and Wales, including those in rural areas. Provision under the duty schemes is demand led and so there may be variations in numbers across each local rota.
The Government has made significant investments in criminal legal aid, to reflect the valuable work done by defence lawyers. We are investing around £92 million per year in steady state in criminal legal aid solicitors’ fees. The majority of the funding (around £82 million) came into effect from 22 December 2025, with the remaining funding (around £10 million) to be implemented as soon as possible this year.
Recruitment and retention of duty solicitors remains crucial. A significant proportion of the around £92 million investment in solicitors’ fees is directed towards supporting duty solicitors in police stations and in the magistrates' courts, including in rural areas. This investment is in addition to the £24 million per year increase we implemented in November 2024 for work done in the police station and Youth Court.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the resilience of the passenger rail network in the South West.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Network Rail is investing significantly in assets throughout the Western and Wales region, including in resilience to protect against storms and flooding in the South West. The storm events and particularly flooding that we have seen in the region recently have posed greater challenges than we have seen in the last few years. The rail industry continues to build plans to make our infrastructure more resilient including focusing on known black spots so that flooding instances are reduced, and where flooding and storms do occur, recovery of rail services can happen more quickly.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has budgeted for contingency funding for the development phase of the Global Combat Air Programme.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Defence Investment Plan will set out how the Department will allocate the defence budget over the next 10 years, including for the Global Combat Air Programme.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure imported meat does not adversely impact disease prevention in farming and animal disease prevention zones.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Meat import controls include measures to prevent spread of animal disease such as veterinary health certification and border control post checks.
On farm biosecurity plays a key role in protecting farms from exotic diseases and can mitigate the risk of spread of such diseases in the event of an outbreak. Defra is working closely with the devolved governments, the livestock industry and veterinary bodies to improve the UK’s response and raise awareness of the risks of introduction of exotic disease.