Joe Morris

The Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008 set out the essential requirements that must be met before a machinery product is placed on the UK market, in order to protect users of that machinery from any undue harm. This includes agricultural vehicles in scope.

As part of those existing requirements, machinery must be designed and constructed in such a way as to avoid any risk of fire or overheating posed by the machinery itself or by gases, liquids, dust, vapours or other substances produced or used by the machinery.

Small businesses are the beating heart of our high streets, our communities, and essential to our economic success. This Government will hardwire the voice of small business into everything we do.

Businesses can access support through their local Growth Hubs, which provide businesses of all sizes and sectors with advice and support throughout the business journey. Growth hubs shape their offer around the unique needs, whether town or country.

The Government provides further support for small businesses through Business Support Service, Help to Grow, the UK Export Academy, International Trade Advisors, the Export Support Service, and the British Business Bank.

The Government is working cohesively to address carbon leakage risk across international and domestic actions.

The UK’s current main measure to address carbon leakage is free allocation under the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which is under review by the UK ETS Authority. The government is additionally introducing a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism on 1 January 2027, developing voluntary product standards and an embodied emissions reporting framework, and working to address carbon leakage risk internationally through existing fora such as the Climate Club and World Trade Organisation.

The Government publishes estimates of the sequestration of carbon in the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry sector for a range of sector categories as part of its annual UK territorial greenhouse gas emissions statistics.

The requested information is not held centrally.

The department collects information on children who are electively home educated (EHE) from local authorities on a voluntary basis. The latest figures can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/elective-home-education.

The department also collects data on children missing education (CME) from local authorities on a voluntary basis. These are children of compulsory school age not registered at school or otherwise receiving suitable education. The latest figures can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-missing-education.

Information on the number of children in EHE in Northumberland between 2021/22 and 2022/23 is available in the following table: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/d158d673-76e2-4aab-a0f2-08dcfae39e23. Information on the number of CME in Northumberland between 2021/22 and 2022/23 is available in the following table: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/d86675e8-9537-4727-a0ed-08dcfae39e23. As data was collected from local authorities for the first time in autumn 2022, information is not held for prior time periods. Additionally, EHE and CME data is not available at council ward level.

In autumn 2023/24, 15% of all EHE children had an additional requirement of special educational needs (SEN) support and 8% of all CME had an additional requirement of SEN support. This compares with 13% for the overall school population in January 2023.

The Children’s Wellbeing Bill will legislate for local authority registers of children not in school. This will include a duty on parents to provide the necessary information for these registers if their child is eligible. These proposals are intended to help local authorities identify all children not in school in their areas, including those that may require SEN support, so they can ensure children are receiving a safe and suitable education.

Our ambitious food strategy will set and deliver clear long-term outcomes that create a healthier, fairer, and more resilient food system, and in doing so will consider elements of the food system that can contribute towards those outcomes.

Mandatory biodiversity net gain is an important means of ensuring development makes a net positive contribution to nature. It is in the early stages of implementation. The policy has been designed to achieve long-term benefits for biodiversity, with major biodiversity gains secured by legal contract for a minimum of 30 years. Because biodiversity net gain applies as a ‘post-permission requirement’, we are only now seeing the first permissions granted with the mandatory biodiversity gain condition.

Defra officials are monitoring the implementation of mandatory biodiversity net gain closely and regularly meet with local planning authorities, developers, and the land management sector, to ensure biodiversity net gain works effectively and proportionally.

Our ambitious food strategy will set and deliver clear long-term outcomes that create a healthier, fairer, and more resilient food system, and in doing so will consider elements of the food system that can contribute towards those outcomes.

The Government continues to have an ambition for half of all food supplied into the public sector to be sourced locally or certified to higher environmental standards, whilst being in line with WTO and domestic procurement obligations. Defra continues to engage across Government Departments to develop proposals which support this ambition, as well as driving net zero, public health and animal welfare outcomes.

The Government’s commitment to British farmers, including family farms, remains steadfast. We will always champion British farming to boost rural economic growth, strengthen food security and improve the environment.

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: £1.8bn for environmental land management schemes. This funding will deliver improvements to food security, biodiversity, carbon emissions, water quality, air quality and flood resilience.

Additionally, across England, we will invest £2.4 billion over the next two years to improve flood resilience, by maintaining, repairing and building flood defences. We are prioritising investment in repairing and restoring critical assets, including investing an additional £36 million into maintaining key strategic assets in 2024-25 and £72 million in 2025-26.

All this funding enables us to keep momentum on the path to a more resilient and sustainable farming sector. We will work with the sector to continue to roll out, improve and evolve these schemes, to make them work for farming and nature.

Data on road injury collisions are reported by police using the STATS19 system. The number of personal injury road collisions in each of the areas requested in 2023 are shown in the table below.

The number of collisions by ward is not routinely available. Mapping tools to view the distribution of individual collisions across Northumberland are available alongside the latest published statistical release on GOV.UK.

Data on which fatal collisions were classified as accidental does not fall under the remit of the Department for Transport and is recorded by coroners.

Data on road injury collisions are reported by police using the STATS19 system. The number of personal injury road collisions in each of the areas requested in 2023 are shown in the table below.

The number of collisions by ward is not routinely available. Mapping tools to view the distribution of individual collisions across Northumberland are available alongside the latest published statistical release on GOV.UK.

Data on which fatal collisions were classified as accidental does not fall under the remit of the Department for Transport and is recorded by coroners.

Illegal money lenders — more commonly known as loan sharks — are dangerous criminals capable of inflicting terrible harm on their victims. To combat this, the Government funds specialist Illegal Money Lending Teams (IMLTs) operating across the UK. These teams investigate and prosecute illegal money lenders and offer support to their victims.

Because of the underground nature of illegal money lending, HM Treasury does not have data on the number of victims of illegal money lending each year. However, HM Treasury officials regularly engage with the IMLTs to receive updates on their work, including on prosecutions, support provided to victims, and any key trends. To learn more about the work of the IMLTs, visit the Stop Loan Sharks website: https://www.stoploansharks.co.uk/.

On 5 December, the Government convened a Financial Inclusion Committee which has been established to tackle the problems of financial exclusion. Through this committee, I will work with consumer groups and industry on the development of a Financial Inclusion Strategy.

I recognise the different impact of financial exclusion across regions, particularly when comparing urban and rural areas. As such, we will be working closely with organisations from across the UK to fully understand the barriers individuals are facing and ensure that the development of the strategy is informed by a range of perspectives and expertise.

It is the responsibility of Fire and Rescue Authorities to set local priorities based on their Community Risk Management Plans to ensure that Fire and Rescue Services have the appropriate equipment and training needed to safely respond to the wide range of incidents which they attend.

This government is committed to the communities sector and community ownership through empowering communities to own and run those local assets which mean the most to them. The English Devolution Bill will empower communities with a strong new ‘right to buy’ beloved community assets, such as empty shops, pubs and community spaces.

We will make further announcements in due course.

I can confirm that monies are being released to those successful Community Ownership Fund projects that have been announced. Officials will be in touch with projects to ensure that they receive the funding as quickly as possible.

This Government was elected with a landmark mission to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in the next decade. We will use every tool within our power to target perpetrators and address the root causes of abuse and violence, including domestic abuse. In November, we launched Domestic Abuse Protection Orders in selected areas to provide more protection for victims, and early this year we will introduce domestic abuse experts in 999 control rooms. These are just some of the first steps we are taking to tackle VAWG and improve the justice system response to domestic abuse across England and Wales.

Through the upcoming Victims, Courts and Public Protection Bill, we have committed to strengthening the powers of the Victims’ Commissioner to further empower them to hold the system to account when the needs of victims, including victims of domestic abuse, are not being met.