Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps she has taken to improve rural transport links in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Government knows the importance of reliable bus services in enabling people to stay connected and access education, work and vital services, particularly in rural areas where buses may be the only form of public transport. We are committed to delivering better bus services and the Bus Services Act 2025 puts passenger needs, reliable services and local accountability at the heart of local bus services by putting the power back in the hands of local leaders right across England.

The Government reaffirmed its commitment to investing in bus services long-term in the Spending Review, confirming over £3 billion from 2026/27 to support local leaders and bus operators across the country to improve bus services for millions of passengers. This includes multi-year allocations for local authorities under the Local Authority Bus Grant (LABG) totalling nearly £700 million per year, ending the short-term approach to bus funding and giving councils the certainty they need to plan ahead to improve services for local communities. Greater Lincolnshire Combined Authority will be allocated £60 million of this funding from 2026/27 to 2028/29, in addition to the £18.5 million they have received in 2025/26.

The formula used to calculate LABG allocations for 2026/27 onwards includes consideration of the rurality of local areas for the first time, acknowledging the challenges of running services in rural areas, in addition to population size, levels of deprivation, and the extent of existing bus services. Funding allocated to local authorities to improve services can be used in whichever way they wish to deliver better services for passengers, this could include expanding current bus provision.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department has used artificial intelligence to assist with drafting (a) legislation and (b) policy in the past 12 months.

Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

The drafting of primary and secondary legislation is the responsibility of a large number of officials across government departments. A range of tools are used to assist with this drafting, including AI which is most commonly used to check, critique, and otherwise interrogate drafts. Work is continuously underway to identify ways of improving the efficiency of this work, including collaboration between departments to share ideas and emerging practices.

While AI can be used to assist with the drafting of legislation, the production of the draft remains the responsibility of a lead human drafter to meet the high standards expected of Government legislation. It is Parliament's responsibility to scrutinise and amend legislation as it sees necessary.

More widely, His Majesty’s Government has issued cross‑government guidance and training to civil servants supporting the safe and responsible use of generative AI. The AI Knowledge Hub was launched in May 2025. This includes core principles and relevant guidance for civil servants and supersedes the AI Playbook for Government.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has used artificial intelligence to assist with drafting (a) legislation and (b) policy in the last 12 months.

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

While no artificial intelligence (AI) tools are being used to draft legislation or policy at present, the Department has conducted exploratory initiatives for AI alongside other digital tools to assist drafters within legislation and policy domains.

Defra has investigated AI opportunities to assist with statutory guidance and comparative analysis between the UK and partner jurisdictions. Further work has examined the potential of AI to support briefing and correspondence within technical policy areas. These tools are designed strictly to check and critique drafts, rather than replace expert drafters who maintain full responsibility and oversight.

More generally, AI productivity tools have been deployed across Defra to assist in day-to-day tasks. This is supported by cross-government guidance and training for civil servants supporting the safe and responsible use of AI, such as through the AI Knowledge Hub, Data & AI Ethics Framework and Model for Responsible Innovation.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will list the training programmes used by civil servants in his Department since 2020.

Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

Cabinet Office staff members can access the full range of learning available to all Civil Servants via the centrally managed learning contracts. The Learning Frameworks service gives civil servants access to quality assured training courses through a supply chain of contracted delivery partners. It can be accessed through the Government Campus website: https://prospectus.governmentcampus.co.uk.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she has taken to help support Lincolnshire County Council to maintain roads and highways in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Government has confirmed a record £7.3 billion investment into local highways maintenance over the next four years. By confirming funding allocations for the next four-year period, authorities have certainty to plan ahead and shift from short-term fixes to proactive, preventative maintenance.

Lincolnshire County Council is the local highway authority for South Holland and The Deepings and sits within the Greater Lincolnshire Combined County Authority (GLCCA). GLCCA are eligible to receive over £368 million in highways maintenance funding over the next four years.

To further support improvement and ensure best use of public funding, the Department published a new traffic light rating system for all local highway authorities in England on 11 January which rates authorities red, amber or green based on: the condition of their roads, how much they spend to maintain their roads and whether they do so using best practice. This system allows the Government to target support to places that need extra help and red-rated authorities have been offered dedicated support to bring them in line with best practice.

Lincolnshire County Council received an overall amber rating, with individual scorecards showing amber for condition, amber for spend and amber for best practice.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the resources available to Lincolnshire police to tackle rural crime.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

This Government is introducing the most radical and comprehensive policing reforms in nearly 200 years. We will modernise policing in this country – equipping it to tackle more sophisticated, online, and cross-border crimes (like wildlife crime and organised equipment theft), while also restoring neighbourhood policing.

With the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee every neighbourhood, rural or urban, now gets named and contactable officers dedicated to tackling crime and anti-social behaviour locally. Every rural area will also be covered by a Local Policing Area under a commander responsible for emergency response, local crime investigation and neighbourhood policing. They will be set targets to ensure they answer 90% of 999 calls within 10 seconds and attend 90% of the most serious incidents within 20 minutes in rural areas.

Last financial year (FY25/26) we provided £800,000 of funding to the National Rural Crime Unit and the National Wildlife Crime Unit, and we will be providing the same level of funding in 26/27. These capabilities play key roles in helping police across the UK tackle organised theft and disrupt serious and organised crime groups, which can pose unique challenges for policing in large and isolated rural areas.

The Government recognises that there can be challenges in responding to rural crime, which is why we worked closely with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) to deliver the next iteration of their Rural and Wildlife Crime strategy and sets out operational and organisational policing priorities in respect of tackling those crimes that predominantly affect our rural communities.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether it is her policy that police forces in England use facial recognition technology during protests.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The police have a responsibility to monitor a protest if serious disorder is expected and to keep the public safe.

Facial recognition must be used in a way that complies with the legal framework which includes human rights, equality and data protection laws, national guidance, a code of practice and forces’ own published policies. This means that all deployments must be for a policing purpose and be necessary, proportionate, and fair.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what target figure for asylum dispersal has been given for a) South Holland District and b) South Kesteven district.

Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)

Since 2022, the Home Office has adopted a policy of Full Dispersal, which works to ensure that asylum accommodation is equitably distributed across the country and that a small number of Local Authorities are not unduly burdened.

Delivery of Full Dispersal is supported by the Asylum Accommodation Plans for each local authority nationally. Development of the plans was informed by feedback provided by local authorities, Strategic Migration Partners (SMPs) the Local Government Association as well as other Government Departments. Furthermore, they are underpinned by an indexing model which considers a number of social factors, including crime rates, levels of homelessness and availability of GPs and dentists. Details of the Asylum Accommodation Plans, including the Service User Demand Plans, are shared with nominated local authority officials and progress is routinely monitored within regular official forums jointly attended by local authority, Home Office, accommodation providers and SMPs colleagues.

The Home Office routinely publishes data on the number of supported asylum seekers in asylum accommodation, broken down by local authority which be found within the Asy_D11 tab for our most recent statistics release: Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many properties a) her department and b) Clearsprings Ready Homes Ltd have acquired in England for asylum dispersal since July 2024.

Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)

The procurement of asylum accommodation nationally is managed via contracted accommodation providers that each have specific regions of focus. Details of the Asylum Accommodation and Support Contracts (AASC) are published in the public domain and can be found on contract finder: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Search.

Local authorities are consulted prior to the procurement of every dispersal property to be used as asylum accommodation, offering them the opportunity to provide useful local intelligence and context to inform procurement decisions. Details of the live dispersal estate in each local authority, including numbers of properties, are shared with nominated local authority officials who are offered the opportunity to routinely engage with both Home Office and accommodation provider officials to raise any issues and/or concerns.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to support border and immigration officials to deal with people coming to the UK with possible cases of the Ebola virus.

Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)

The current Ebola outbreak poses a low risk to the UK population. Border Force officers adhere to Home Office Communicable Disease guidance, which outlines the most common infections that may be acquired from animals, plants, and other sources. In the event of any suspected exposure to any communicable disease, containment would be an immediate priority, with local health and emergency services engaged to manage and treat the situation.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to support access to Post Offices in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.

Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government protects the Post Office network by setting minimum access criteria, including a requirement for Post Office to maintain a network where at least 99% of the UK population lives within three miles of a post office branch.

To support delivery of these criteria, the Government provides funding to the Post Office through the Network Subsidy. Over the next three financial years (2026/27 to 2028/29), the Government will provide up to £180 million to help protect access to vital Post Office services and sustain the national network.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps she has taken to support local councils to support timely road repairs in Lincolnshire.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980, local highway authorities themselves are responsible for maintaining their networks and for the delivery of maintenance works. The Act does not set out specific standards of maintenance, as it is for each individual local highway authority to assess which parts of its network need repair and what standards should be applied, based upon their local knowledge and circumstances.

The Government has confirmed a record £7.3 billion investment into local highways maintenance over the next four years. By confirming funding allocations for the next four-year period, authorities have certainty to plan ahead and shift from short-term fixes to proactive, preventative maintenance.

Lincolnshire County Council sits within the Greater Lincolnshire Combined County Authority (GLCCA). GLCCA are eligible to receiver over £368 million in highways maintenance funding from the Government over the next four years.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps NHS England is taking to support NHS staff to diagnose patients with type 1 diabetes as quickly as possible.

Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has recently updated the clinical guidelines on type 1 diabetes in children and young people, which is available at the following link:

www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng18

This sets out that children and young people without a known diagnosis of diabetes can also present with diabetic ketoacidosis which requires urgent diagnosis and management. This includes the measurement of capillary blood glucose, which is usually undertaken through a finger-prick test.

NHS England is also exploring improvements that can be made to support clinicians in identifying type 1 diabetes, as well as raising awareness of the signs of type 1 diabetes for the public and clinicians.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if NHS England will take steps to routinely offer finger-prick testing for anyone with symptoms of type 1 diabetes.

Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has recently updated the clinical guidelines on type 1 diabetes in children and young people, which is available at the following link:

www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng18

This sets out that children and young people without a known diagnosis of diabetes can also present with diabetic ketoacidosis which requires urgent diagnosis and management. This includes the measurement of capillary blood glucose, which is usually undertaken through a finger-prick test.

NHS England is also exploring improvements that can be made to support clinicians in identifying type 1 diabetes, as well as raising awareness of the signs of type 1 diabetes for the public and clinicians.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will publish a list of training programmes used by civil servants in his Department since 2020.

Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The information is not held in a central, reportable format. To provide it would require multiple teams to manually search and compile records from across the department, resulting in disproportionate cost.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent steps he has taken to help protect prison officers from violence.

Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip

Staff must be able to expect a safe and decent work environment. We will not tolerate any violence against prison officers and prisoners who are violent towards staff will face the full consequences of their actions.

We have invested over £40 million into new physical security measures to clamp down on the contraband that fuels violence behind bars - including £10 million on drone countermeasures.

We are also investing around £15 million in protective equipment to help keep frontline staff safe, including roll out of up to 10,000 pieces of protective body armour, and training for up to 500 staff in the use of tasers. This is a significant expansion on the roll out of protective body armour last year to staff working in specialist units in the Long-Term and High Security Estate, and the trial of tasers that commenced last summer.

Electric razors are now supplied to all public sector prisons in the adult male closed estate, replacing wet shave razors due to their potential use as weapons.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officers were issued with (a) tasers and (b) body armour in 2025.

Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip

Following a serious incident at HMP Frankland in April 2025, the Department acted quickly to review the use of protective body armour across the estate.

As a result, we have introduced a significant expansion in provision, with protective body armour now mandated for staff working in the highest-risk areas of the long-term high security estate, including Close Supervision Centres, Separation Centres and Segregation Units. This builds on existing use in high-risk operational contexts such as planned use of force and national tactical deployments.

We issued protective body armour to 514 named staff members in 2025, with a further 264 spare sets available for cross‑deployment.

Tasers are not issued to individual officers. However, 18 officers within the Operational Response and Resilience Unit were trained in the use of the Conducted Energy Device (taser) in 2025.

Our approach is risk-based and evidence-led, ensuring that protective equipment is prioritised for those staff facing the greatest threat, while remaining practical and effective in operational environments.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps he has taken to help reduce the number of agricultural fatalities in Lincolnshire.

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

In line with its published Strategy 2022 to 2032, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) focuses on the most effective and efficient ways to improve the health and safety performance of all industries in Great Britain, this includes reducing fatalities in farming in Great Britain (including Lincolnshire).

Between 2018 and 2024, in partnership with the industry, HSE ran a campaign to offer farmers free health and safety training which was then followed up by an inspection to a selection of those farms invited to take the training.

HSE will continue to visit farms where it has intelligence to suggest risk is not being managed adequately, and investigate incidents in line with its published selection criteria.

As well as appropriate site visits, HSE continues to engage with farming through a variety of other methods including delivering industry talks; webinars and presentations; engaging with the media and publishing targeted articles for farmers; producing industry notifications which include safety messaging; and producing awareness raising campaigns. It also produces a range of freely available guidance to enable farmers to comply with health and safety law and keep themselves and others safe.

HSE’s commitment to working with the agricultural industry through stakeholders such as Britain’s Farm Safety Partnerships (FSPs) remains strong. The most recent activity includes supporting the FSPs with a campaign on safe use of quad bikes.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been prosecuted for bigamy in each of the last ten years.

Answered by Catherine Atkinson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The Ministry of Justice publishes data on prosecutions for bigamy in England and Wales in the Outcomes by Offences data tool. This can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to support the road haulage industry with fuel costs in Lincolnshire.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department for Transport is aware of growing concerns around rising fuel and transport costs caused by the conflict in the Middle East. The department fully recognises the need to maintain the continuity of critical supply chains and is actively monitoring any potential impacts. On 20 May, the government announced an extension of the 5p cut in fuel duty to the end of the year and a 12-month vehicle excise duty (VED) holiday for hauliers, to help with rising prices.

The department will continue to work with industry to understand the pressures and options to mitigate any risks, and is meeting regularly with haulier representative organisations, to understand the challenges hauliers in Lincolnshire and elsewhere are facing due to rising costs and varied ability to pass these on to consumers, particularly small and medium sized enterpris

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent steps she has taken to end the use of animals in scientific research for human medicine and products.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Government’s strategy to replace animals in science sets a long-term goal of eliminating their use in all but exceptional circumstances. It focuses on building a research and innovation system that develops and validates alternative methods, including for testing human medicines and products. The strategy was developed in collaboration with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and includes targets to replace specific animal tests used in medicines development. The MHRA has also issued new guidance outlining its approach to supporting non-animal methods in medicines regulation.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what fiscal steps he is taking to help reduce the cost of household energy bills for people in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.

Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Government acted in the Autumn Budget to reduce electricity costs to the benefit of all households with a domestic electricity meter, including those not on the gas grid. By scrapping the ECO home insulation scheme and moving 75% of the domestic costs of the Renewables Obligation to the Exchequer, from April this year until 1 July we have been able to provide immediate savings for households. The Government's actions on bills also support the transition to clean energy, and ensure that future investments in the energy system are funded fairly and sustainably.

We are also investing £15 billion through the Warm Homes Plan – the biggest home upgrade plan in British history – to help lift a million families out of fuel poverty by 2030.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps she has taken to tackle sham marriages.

Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Government takes abuse of the immigration system, including sham marriages and civil partnerships, extremely seriously. Family migration must be based on a genuine and subsisting relationship, and where this is not the case the Home Office will take robust action.

The sham marriage referral and investigation scheme, introduced under the Immigration Act 2014, continues to provide a strong platform for effective action to identify, disrupt and deter sham marriages and civil partnerships before they take place. The scheme applies to couples where one or both parties could gain an immigration advantage from marriage or civil partnership, allowing the Home Office to investigate and take action where appropriate.

Part Suitability of the Immigration Rules was updated in December 2020 to introduce specific grounds for the refusal or cancellation of permission to enter/stay on the basis of involvement in a sham marriage or sham civil partnership, providing a more robust and consistent framework against which immigration applications are assessed, and reflecting the seriousness of this type of abuse

Most recently, the Home Office has strengthened its approach to tackling sham marriages and civil partnerships by improving the coordination, detection and disruption across the system. Immigration Enforcement has established a national coordination and operational governance model to provide improved oversight of sham marriage activity, strengthen consistency of decision‑making and target resources more effectively. The Home Office continues to work closely with local registration services, UK Visas and Immigration, law enforcement partners and intelligence teams to identify sham relationships early and prevent abuse of the marriage route. This includes enhanced information‑sharing, improved referral processes and targeted investigative activity where abuse is suspected.

Where there are reasonable grounds to suspect a marriage or civil partnership is not genuine, the Home Office will investigate and take appropriate action. This may include refusal or curtailment of leave, removal or deportation from the UK , or prosecution.. The Home Office also focuses on disrupting facilitators and organised criminal networks involved in arranging sham marriages, recognising the links to wider serious and organised crime.

The Government keeps its processes under continual review and remains committed to protecting the integrity of the immigration system, safeguarding vulnerable individuals and ensuring enforcement activity is proportionate, intelligence‑led and lawful.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will publish a list of training programmes used by civil servants in his Department since 2023.

Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) provides training for civil servants through a combination of cross‑government, departmental and locally procured learning.

Since 2023, this has included learning accessed through Civil Service Learning and the Government Campus, which bring together core, functional and profession‑specific training across government.

The Department offers internal learning through the DESNZ Academy, covering core learning, leadership and management, specialist skills, and talent and career development.

The Department does not hold a single centrally maintained list of all individual training courses undertaken, as learning is accessed through multiple platforms aligned to business needs.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of additional teachers funded in Lincolnshire with the proceeds from VAT on school fees.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

Reforms to VAT and business rates will raise around £1.8 billion a year by 2029/30, helping to deliver the government’s commitments relating to education and young people. This measure will raise essential revenue that will be invested in our public services, including the £1.7 billion increase to the core schools budget in 2026/27, taking total funding to £67 billion. This increase will support schools to recruit the staff they need, including in Lincolnshire.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to support economic growth in Lincolnshire.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

The government’s focus is in making Britain better off. There is excellence right across the country and this government is backing it: lifting living standards and putting more money in people’s pockets.

The Greater Lincolnshire Combined County Authority have been awarded £155m through the Local Transport Grant enabling the local authority to deliver transport improvements including bus lanes, cycleways and congestion improvement.

Autumn Budget 2025 meant GLCCA benefited from coverage under the Local Growth Fund. GLCCA also benefited from a brownfield housing allocation over the SR period of £34m, and will benefit from visitor levy powers.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent steps she has taken to help support people with the cost of living in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.

Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government is committed to improving living standards for everyone, in every part of the UK. Our strategy for improving living standards is through growing the economy, which is the only way to sustainably increase wages, and through tackling inflation, which erodes people's pay checks

Through action taken at Budget, the Government has eased cost of living pressures for households. From reducing energy bills and freezing rail fares and NHS prescription fees, to increasing the National Living Wage, extending the pensions Triple Lock and removing the two child limit in Universal Credit, the Government has consistently acted to put more money in people's pockets — with further commitments on free breakfast clubs and expanded free school meals ensuring families with children feel the difference too

The government has recently set out further action to continue easing cost of living pressures through a new package of temporary and targeted support. The Chancellor has announced a funded, time-limited Great British Summer Saving package supporting families and businesses with rising costs through a temporary cut in the rate of VAT on summer attractions and children’s meals in restaurants and cafes from 20% to 5% over the summer holidays, and free bus travel across England for children aged between 5 and 15 throughout August. The government has confirmed that there will be no rise to fuel duty this year, with targeted support for those most exposed, including farmers. We have also suspended tariffs on 125 product lines, reducing prices on staple goods, and provided targeted sectoral support including chemicals and ceramics.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of support given to veterans in Lincolnshire.

Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)

This government is committed to ensuring that veterans and their families are easily able to access support in Lincolnshire and across the country, when and where it is needed.

Last year we launched a new Veterans Strategy which recognises veterans as a national asset and resets the nation’s relationship with those who have served. Alongside this, we launched the £50 million VALOUR programme, which will make it easier for veterans to access the care and support they deserve.

For general support, Ministry of Defence Veterans Services provides tailored, holistic information, guidance and welfare support to those who need it through a national network of Case Managers across the UK, ensuring that individuals and families receive comprehensive, joined-up support tailored to their needs.

This government removed local connection tests for veterans of the regular armed forces in England applying for social housing, and extended the Reducing Veteran Homelessness Programme to deliver wraparound care and support services across the UK.

In addition, dedicated support is available to veterans at risk of or experiencing homelessness or mental and physical health needs through Ops FORTITUDE, COURAGE and RESTORE. Employment support is delivered through Op ASCEND and programmes such as the Career Transition partnership. For those in contact with or at risk of contact with the Criminal Justice System support is available through Op NOVA.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent steps his department has taken to support the long term resilience of pubs in Lincolnshire.

Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government recognises that pubs, including those in Lincolnshire, play a vital role in supporting local economies and communities across the UK.

That is why the Government announced business rates support for pubs. As of April 2026, every pub received a 15% cut to new business rates bills, followed by a two year real-terms freeze.

A new three-year £10m Hospitality Support Scheme will help improve the resilience of hospitality businesses, including helping pubs in rural areas diversify their community offer. Pubs will also be able to extend opening hours for Home Nations matches in the later stages of the Men’s Football World Cup 2026.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the absence of in-person banking services in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire on blind and partially sighted people.

Answered by Rachel Blake - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

Banking is changing, with many customers benefitting from the convenience and flexibility of managing their finances remotely. However, the Government recognises that these changes may have resulted in detriment for some customers, particularly those who rely on in person banking services.

The Government recognises the importance of access to in person banking services for blind and partially sighted people, including in South Holland and the Deepings and in Lincolnshire, and across the United Kingdom. We are committed to ensuring that people who need in person banking services, including vulnerable and disabled customers, can continue to access essential services.

The Government is working closely with industry to support the roll out of 350 banking hubs by the end of this Parliament. Over 275 hubs have been announced so far, and more than 235 are already open. Banking hubs provide everyday counter services, including cash withdrawals and deposits, bill payments and balance enquiries, and also offer space for customers to meet community bankers from their own bank to carry out additional banking services.

The Government continues to engage with industry to improve the consistency, accessibility and range of services available in banking hubs so that they meet the needs of people and communities.

In addition, the Government has commissioned an independent Review into Access to Banking Services to assess whether changes in the provision of in person banking services are causing consumer detriment, including to specific groups such as disabled customers. The findings of the Review will inform any further action that may be needed.

Alongside this, the Government intends to include a power in forthcoming financial services legislation to enable it to act to protect access to banking services, should this be necessary.

More widely, the Government published its Financial Inclusion Strategy last year which sets out a range of ambitious measures for government and industry to improve financial inclusion for underserved groups across the UK. This includes a focus on access to banking and accessibility, with interventions to make it easier for individuals to access a bank account and to make financial products more accessible through an inclusive design working group.

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