Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what his planned timeline is for the roll-out of the new pet passport scheme.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We have agreed to establish a UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Zone, which will mean taking pets on holiday into the EU will be easier and cheaper.
Instead of getting an animal health certificate each time you travel, you will be able to get a multiuse pet passport valid for travel to the EU.
It’s important that we get the right agreement for the UK, so we’re not putting an arbitrary deadline on negotiations. We will provide more information on pet passports valid for travel to the EU in due course.
Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many and what proportion of military accommodation units are unoccupied in Suffolk Coastal constituency; and whether his Department plans to bring them back into use.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Defence Housing Strategy includes an extensive review of our entire Service Family Accommodation (SFA) portfolio to determine how we will utilise our properties. I expect we will be able to provide details of our future intentions when the review is completed.
There are 225 SFA properties located in the Suffolk Coastal constituency of which, 60 (27%) are currently unoccupied. 41 of these SFA are ready to be occupied by families and 19 require improvement works before they can be allocated to Service families.
Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department plans to spend on military accommodation in Suffolk Coastal constituency in each of the next five financial years.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Defence Housing Strategy includes an extensive review of our entire Service Family Accommodation (SFA) portfolio to determine how we will utilise our properties. I expect we will be able to provide details of our future intentions when the review is completed.
There are 225 SFA properties located in the Suffolk Coastal constituency of which, 60 (27%) are currently unoccupied. 41 of these SFA are ready to be occupied by families and 19 require improvement works before they can be allocated to Service families.
Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the annual running costs were for Army sites located in Suffolk Coastal constituency in each of the last five financial years; and how much funding his Department plans to provide for those sites in the next five financial years.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The data requested for the previous five financial years can be found below. These costs relate to MOD Woodbridge (Rock Barracks and Woodbridge Airfield), as the only Army owned site within the hon. Member’s constituency:
Year | £ million |
FY2024-25 | 4.416 |
FY2023-24 | 4.528 |
FY2022-23 | 4.723 |
FY2021-22 | 3.799 |
FY2020-21 | 3.768 |
Note: These figures represent the total actual costs for the Hard and Soft Facilities Management of the establishment.
Funds are allocated appropriately to deliver strategic objectives. In advance of the conclusions of the Strategic Defence Review , I hope the hon. Member will understand that I cannot anticipate future budgetary allocations.
Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will take steps to extend the boundary of Freeport East.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The boundaries of Freeport tax sites are defined in law. They were agreed, after careful deliberation, by the Government and local Freeport partners, including the relevant local authorities. The Government currently has no plans to amend the boundaries of Freeport tax sites.
Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of developing an accessible food labelling system to improve transparency.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The availability and accessibility of essential food information to all consumers is vitally important. It is already a requirement that mandatory food information must be easily visible, clearly legible and where appropriate indelible, in addition to there being a required minimum font size for mandatory information.
We are aware of moves by some retailers to provide information on food in braille format, and the government is interested in seeing how this works.
Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to (a) ensure adequate in-person police access for older people seeking to report scam phone calls in communities where police stations have closed and (b) tackle the impersonation of police officers for fraudulent purposes.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office is committed to tackling the threat of fraud, which is why this Government has committed to publishing a new and enhanced Fraud Strategy that addresses the full range of harm that UK citizens face from fraud, including tackling the impersonation of police officers for fraudulent purposes. Reporting of scam calls should be done to Action Fraud, via either their website https://www.actionfraud.police.uk or via telephone on 0300 123 2040. There is also a variety of other ways the public can contact the police about fraud. For example, by phoning 101 at any time for non-emergency enquiries and concerns. There are also opportunities for in-person contact, particularly with neighbourhood police officers and PCSOs.
The Government is committed to strong neighbourhood policing and by the end of parliament (2029) there will be 13,000 additional police officers, PCSOs and special constables in neighbourhood policing roles. As the Prime Minister announced on 10 April, by July, every community will have named and contactable officers dedicated to addressing the issues facing their communities as part of the Government’s Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee.
Every force will ensure that neighbourhood teams spend the majority of their time in their communities providing visible patrols and engaging with local communities and businesses and local people will also have ongoing opportunities raise concerns at regular local beat meetings. It is up to Chief Constables and directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners (or equivalents) to make decisions on local police resourcing and estates. They are best placed to make these decisions based on their local knowledge and experience.
Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help older people report scam phone calls.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office is committed to tackling the threat of fraud, which is why this Government has committed to publishing a new and enhanced Fraud Strategy that addresses the full range of harm that UK citizens face from fraud, including tackling the impersonation of police officers for fraudulent purposes. Reporting of scam calls should be done to Action Fraud, via either their website https://www.actionfraud.police.uk or via telephone on 0300 123 2040. There is also a variety of other ways the public can contact the police about fraud. For example, by phoning 101 at any time for non-emergency enquiries and concerns. There are also opportunities for in-person contact, particularly with neighbourhood police officers and PCSOs.
The Government is committed to strong neighbourhood policing and by the end of parliament (2029) there will be 13,000 additional police officers, PCSOs and special constables in neighbourhood policing roles. As the Prime Minister announced on 10 April, by July, every community will have named and contactable officers dedicated to addressing the issues facing their communities as part of the Government’s Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee.
Every force will ensure that neighbourhood teams spend the majority of their time in their communities providing visible patrols and engaging with local communities and businesses and local people will also have ongoing opportunities raise concerns at regular local beat meetings. It is up to Chief Constables and directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners (or equivalents) to make decisions on local police resourcing and estates. They are best placed to make these decisions based on their local knowledge and experience.
Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve the educational support system for post-16 students who missed GCSE examinations due to unforeseen circumstances.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
If a student is unable to sit an exam or assessment for a qualification for an acceptable reason, but has completed at least one other exam or assessment in that subject, schools and colleges may be able to apply for special consideration.
When in post-16 education, students can agree a study programme with their institution that meets their needs. 16 to 19 funding is flexible in supporting a wide range of study programmes, though these need to include English and mathematics if students have not yet achieved a GCSE grade 4 in these subjects.
The 16 to 19 funding formula allocates additional funding to support students who need to continue with English and mathematics, and funding to help with the more general additional costs incurred for teaching and supporting students who have low prior attainment.
When learning programmes are designed to enable students to re-sit or retake examinations and assessments these are not generally eligible for funding as the activity has already been funded. However, when there are exceptional circumstances outside the control of the student or institution then the retake delivery hours for individual students may be included in the funded study programme hours.
In the guidance ‘16 to 19 funding: information for 2025 to 2026’, published 5 March 2025, the department announced additional 16 to 19 education funding in the 2025/26 financial year on top of the £300 million announced at the Autumn Budget 2024. This guidance can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/16-to-19-funding-information-for-2025-to-2026. This means that we will be spending over £400 million more to ensure enough funding is available given the very significant increase in student numbers and other pressures on the system.
Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of mandating the installation of defibrillators in all (a) visitor attractions and (b) entertainment venues in the UK that accommodate over a specified number of visitors annually.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made and there are no plans to mandate the installation of defibrillators at such locations, in light of the rapid expansion of automated external defibrillators across the United Kingdom.
There are now over 100,000 defibrillators in the UK registered on The Circuit, which represents an increase of 30,000 since September 2023. 58.6% of the over 100,000 defibrillators are accessible on a 24/7 basis.
The Circuit is operated independently by the British Heart Foundation, in partnership with the Resuscitation Council UK, the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, and the National Health Service.