John Whitby

I recognise that the EU General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) may require changes for some businesses, including sole traders and those selling engineering products to the EU.

We have published guidance for Northern Ireland, which we regularly review, and continue to support businesses trading with the EU. Since October 2024, the UK Export Academy delivered eight free GPSR training sessions supporting over 5,000 users.

DBT's Export Support Service are now signposting businesses to verified external service providers specialising in GPSR via the Export Support Directory. These are paid for providers, so businesses should perform due diligence before entering commercial relationships.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) is committed to supporting small businesses to export and access the EU market.

UK businesses can access DBT’s wealth of export support via Great.gov.uk, including the Export Academy, UK Export Finance, the International Markets network with teams based across the EU, and one-to-one support from International Trade Advisers. Unlock Europe is an Export Academy webinar series designed to help UK businesses strengthen relationships with European customers and increase their exporting potential to the EU.

At the coming UK-EU summit, we aim to make progress on tackling barriers to trade and securing outcomes that will help more UK businesses export to our European neighbours.

The Government is supporting small businesses across the UK to understand and comply with the new EU General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) and its application in Northern Ireland.

We have published information on GOV.UK regarding GPSR's application in Northern Ireland, which we regularly review, and continue engaging directly with businesses. Firms exporting to the EU should note that EU guidance is now available and may also wish to contact the Government's Export Support Service. Since October, the UK Export Academy has delivered five free online GPSR training sessions to over 2,600 attendees.

Customers will not unexpectedly lose access to their heating and hot water after 30th June, and we will not allow widespread disconnection.

Suppliers must fulfil all of their legal obligations to their customers, and that any future, localised phase-out of RTS meters after 30th Junemust be controlled, planned, and communicated properly to all customers in order to proceed.

The government will do everything it can to ensure that all customers are protected, and will work with Ofgem to hold suppliers to account if required. We expect energy suppliers to be taking measures, such as deploying roaming teams of installers including in rural areas, to ensure consumers receive replacement meters in a timely manner.

Ofgem next convenes a working group on 11 June where Elexon will present cost and benefit analysis of the proposed solution. Subsequent timelines depend on whether any Alternative Modifications (solutions) are raised by industry, before a Final Modification Report (FMR) is submitted for Ofgem’s consideration and decision. Ofgem expects to receive the FMR by end of Q3 2025.

The Department is continuing to examine how to remove barriers for community and local energy project’s route to market. This includes working with Ofgem, GBE and relevant stakeholders to find solutions that work in the best interests of local generators and consumers.

As part of the Review of Electricity Market Arrangements, the Government assessed the merits of decoupling the electricity wholesale price from gas, considering proposals such as a Split Market, Green Power Pool and future-proofed Contracts for Difference scheme. The Contracts for Difference scheme was identified as the best tool to decouple gas and electricity prices. Increasing participation of renewables in the wholesale market means that over time, cheaper renewable electricity will set the price more often, lowering costs for consumers.

Government recognises the role community groups play in our efforts to tackle climate change. Great British Energy, through the Local Power Plan, will enhance support for local and community energy by partnering with Mayoral Strategic Authorities, community energy groups and Devolved Governments. This includes the Great British Energy Community Fund, which will provide funding and support to community energy stakeholders, helping to increase the roll out of renewable energy project.

Project Gigabit is the government’s programme to deliver gigabit-capable broadband to homes and businesses that are not included in suppliers' commercial plans. This includes farms and other types of premises in rural communities.

We will also continue to work with mobile network operators to deliver the Shared Rural Network to boost 4G mobile coverage to rural communities, including farms, enabling them to thrive.

Our ambition is for all populated areas, including rural communities, to have higher quality standalone 5G by 2030. We are committed to having the right policy and regulatory framework to support this. We continue to work with industry to deliver this.

The rollout of broadband infrastructure in national parks is led by commercial suppliers, in discussion with the relevant National Park Authority.

Reforms to the Electronic Communications Code in 2017, alongside the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022, have created a framework which encourages network deployment.

We will continue to work with the industry to improve 4G coverage in areas of natural beauty and national parks via the Shared Rural Network (SRN). On 28 May we announced that over 50 existing mobile masts had been upgraded for the SRN, with over half of them providing new coverage to areas of outstanding natural beauty or national parks.

Alongside the SRN, our ambition is for all populated areas to have higher quality standalone 5G by 2030. We are committed to having the right policy and regulatory framework to support this and we continue to work with industry to deliver this.

National Parks are vital assets for tourism, attracting millions of domestic and international visitors each year and supporting local economies through recreation, hospitality, and cultural heritage. To encourage more visitors, the Government has led a once-in-a-generation reform of regional and local destination management: 41 Local Visitor Economy Partnerships have now been accredited across England, creating a high-performing network across the Visitor Economy working with local authorities and businesses at a local level - encouraging new levels of collaboration between regions and empowering domestic tourism for places of tourist interest such as National Parks.

DCMS continues to work with VisitBritain to champion visits to the British countryside to a worldwide audience. VisitBritain’s new GREAT-funded international marketing campaign, ‘Starring GREAT Britain’, uses the hook of Britain’s rich film and television history to encourage more international visitors to explore across Britain, including many rural destinations, landmarks and National Parks.

The government recognises the challenges some schools are facing due to falling pupil rolls.

Local authorities hold the statutory place planning function, ensuring there are sufficient schools in their area to meet the needs of pupils. It is for local authorities, in collaboration with academy trusts and other local partners, to balance the supply and demand of school places, in line with changing demographics, as they have done for many years.

We expect local authorities and their partners to consider options for the utilisation of space, including repurposing space for early years, where primary schools can play a crucial role in the delivery of new places, and special educational needs and disabilities provision, as well as options for the reconfiguration or merging of provision where appropriate.

Local authorities may also set aside some of the ‘schools block’ funding of their Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) to support falling rolls. This is intended to support schools where planning data shows that the surplus places will be needed in future years. The department has allocated £176 million in Growth and Falling Rolls funding to local authorities in 2025/26 through the DSG. The responsibility for how Growth and Falling Rolls funding is allocated rests with the local authority.

I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Derbyshire Dales to the answer of 9 June 2025 to Question 54948.

Apprenticeships are jobs with training, and it is for employers in the hair and beauty sector to decide how they use apprenticeships to meet their skills needs.

The sector has developed several apprenticeship standards, including the level 2 hairdressing professional standard. To support smaller employers to access apprenticeships, the government pays the full training costs for young apprentices aged 16 to 21, and for apprentices aged 22 to 24 who have an education, health and care (EHC) plan or have been in local authority care.

Employers can benefit from £1,000 payments when they take on apprentices aged 16 to 18, or apprentices aged 19 to 24 who have an EHC plan or have been in local authority care. Employers can choose how they spend these payments. Employers are also not required to pay anything towards employees’ National Insurance for all apprentices aged up to age 25, where they earn less than £50,270 a year.

There is no single group responsible for grassland policy, as policies affecting grasslands cut across several Defra policy areas. These include Environmental Land Management Schemes (ELMs), National Biodiversity, Protected Sites and Protected Landscapes. There are also a range of habitat and species specialists in Natural England, including for grasslands.

This Government is committed to delivering our legally binding biodiversity targets which includes our habitat target to restore or create 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat outside of protected sites by 2042. We are delivering this target over a wide range of habitats, including wildlife-rich grasslands.

Protected Landscapes (National Landscapes, National Trails and National Parks) work together through the Big Chalk partnership, which seeks to protect and restore our nature-rich chalk grasslands.

The Government is committed to ensuring agricultural tenancies are fair and collaborative. Agricultural tenancy agreements grant tenant farmers statutory protections. In cases of a tenancy ending all parties are encouraged to employ the Agricultural Landlord and Tenant Code of Practice, which sets out expected standards for constructive tenancy negotiations.

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) understands the importance of cashflow for farmers and rural businesses. It makes payments for schemes and grants against published performance indicators and continues to look at opportunities to issue payments as promptly as possible.

Performance in relation to the financial year (1 April to 31 March) is reported each year within the RPA Annual Report and Accounts and will be published next month.

This Government is committed to improving the quality of life for people living and working in rural areas, so that we can realise the full potential of rural business and communities. The United Kingdom Food Security Report 2024 shows that people living in rural areas are more likely to have to travel further to access facilities such as food stores.

The food strategy will articulate the outcomes we want from the food system, enabling government, civil society, and the food supply chain to work towards a healthier, fairer, more sustainable and more resilient 21st century food system. We will be considering the role of place-based initiatives, including Local Food Partnerships, as we develop the food strategy.

The Joint Air Quality Unit (JAQU) is a joint Defra/DfT division. Members of JAQU attend meetings with officials across both Departments regularly.

As the UK’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, decarbonising transport will play an important role in meeting economy-wide carbon budgets. Transport emissions reduced by 10% between 2019 to 2023, but emissions must fall faster to achieve our legal targets. The Government will deliver an updated delivery plan for meeting legislated carbon budgets later this year, with policy detail for all sectors provided up to the end of Carbon Budget 6 in 2037.

The government is committed to delivering better, more frequent and more reliable bus services for passengers. We have already made significant progress, introducing the Bus Services Bill to help give local leaders the powers they need to take control of their local services if they choose to do so, and announcing investment of over £1 billion to support and improve bus services.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are the strategic commissioners of health and care services in England. NHS England has asked the ICBs to reduce the duplication of functions, to achieve efficiencies and reduce their running costs, with the aim to direct the cost savings towards front line National Health Service health and care services.

No assessment has been made in regard to moving any non-clinical services to clinical staff. We expect the ICBs to review their functions whilst acting as strategic commissioners, and this includes where multiple assurance and regulatory functions are being done by different organisations, wider performance management, and comms and engagement, which similarly exists in local authorities, providers, and regions, with a view of delegating these functions appropriately.

We are aware of the challenges faced in accessing a dentist, particularly in more rural and coastal areas, and we are already taking action through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment initiative will see up to 240 dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in the rural and coastal areas that need them most for three years.

Looking to the longer-term, a central part of the 10-Year Health Plan will be our workforce and how we ensure we train and provide the staff, technology, and infrastructure the National Health Service needs to care for patients across our communities.

Tackling the geographical disparities in access to NHS dentistry is vital. We will publish a refreshed workforce plan to ensure the NHS has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need, when they need it.

The Department continues to advise patients to follow National Health Service guidance on reducing the risk of skin cancer. This advice is available publicly on the NHS website, at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/melanoma-skin-cancer/

NHS England run Help Us Help You campaigns to increase knowledge of cancer symptoms and address the barriers to acting on them, to encourage people to come forward as soon as possible to see their general practitioner. The campaigns focus on a range of symptoms, as well as encouraging body awareness to help people spot symptoms across a wide range of cancers at an earlier point.

The Government is monitoring the impact of the death certification reforms, which came into legal effect on 9 September 2024, through the Death Certification Strategic Board and a cross-Government data strategy group. Since the introduction of the reforms, the median time taken to register a death appears to have risen by two days, from seven days to nine days. This figure is for all deaths, as it includes those certified by a doctor and those investigated by a coroner. Working with the Office for National Statistics, weekly data is now published on the time taken to register a death by region and also by setting. This is supporting NHS England and the Welsh administration to offer support and challenges.

The median time taken to register a death varies depending on the type of certification. Deaths certified by a doctor, that comprise approximately 80% of deaths registered each week, have typically had a median time to registration of seven days, though there can be variation at a local level. It’s important to note that the medical examiner system was active on a non-statutory basis before the introduction of the statutory system on 9 September 2024, and this makes direct ‘before’ and ‘after’ comparisons challenging to draw conclusions from.

The introduction of medical examiners is in part about making sure deaths are properly described and improving practice, but the impact on the bereaved is also central. The reforms aim to put the bereaved at the centre of the process, and the medical examiner’s office must offer a conversation with representatives of the deceased, so they can ask any questions they have about the death or to raise concerns. Ensuring the system is appropriately resourced and works for all those who interact with it is crucial, and something we will continue to monitor with NHS England.

As of November 2024, 9,308 contractors were delivering at least one Pharmacy First clinical pathway consultation with good coverage across the country, equivalent almost 90% of active pharmacies.

We have recently announced the funding arrangements for 2025/26, which will see increased fees for this service as well as a new fixed fee of £500 for pharmacies delivering between 20 and 29 consultations per month as well as the existing fixed fee of £1,000 for 30 consultations and over.

NHS England is keeping the Pharmacy First service under close review. In addition, a National Institute for Health and Care Research evaluation of Pharmacy First will assess how the service has been implemented across England, including impacts on prescribing in the general practice setting, use of hospitals and how the service has impacted access to care and cost for different patient groups.