Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase clinical research activity in North Yorkshire.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is committed to increasing clinical research activity across all parts of England, including North Yorkshire, to ensure patients have equitable access to opportunities to take part in research.
The Department invests in research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), which provides national infrastructure to support research delivery across the country. This includes the NIHR Research Delivery Network, which operates across England and is designed to increase capacity and capability for clinical research in all regions and settings, including primary, community, and rural areas.
To support participation in research across Yorkshire and Humber, including North Yorkshire, the NIHR funds the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Research Delivery Network and other research delivery infrastructure that helps National Health Service organisations, primary care providers, and other health and care settings deliver studies and offer more opportunities to participants. Together, these investments help increase research capacity and capability and provide more opportunities for patients and the public to take part in research closer to home.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help reduce regional disparities in health research funding; and if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of funding distribution on a) patient outcomes and b) economic growth in regions such as North Yorkshire.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department funds health and care research via its research operational arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), across England. The Department is committed to ensuring that research is inclusive and representative of the population geographically and demographically. Inclusion is a core priority for NIHR and in November 2024, the Department made equity, diversity, and inclusion a condition of NIHR funding for all domestic research awards.
The NIHR is taking a number of steps to secure equitable allocation of health research funding including targeted programme design, long‑term capacity building in under‑served regions, such as new regional commercial research delivery centres, and place‑based research partnerships. In addition, from this April the NIHR’s Research Delivery Network, which supports all National Health Service trusts in England to deliver research, implemented a new national funding allocation model for NHS support costs and research delivery which will reduce regional variations in health research delivery investment.
Embedding research into healthcare systems leads to patients benefits such as better health outcomes, access to life-saving treatments, and less healthcare use. Through the process of trial participation, participants can access potentially life-saving technological or pharmaceutical interventions to treat or prevent morbidity, and mortality odds for research-active NHS trusts are 5% lower.
NIHR research is a powerful engine for economic growth, supporting thousands of high-value jobs across our life sciences sector and attracting crucial investment into the UK as well as delivering better health care. For every £1 invested by the Government, NIHR research delivers a return of over £13 in economic benefit to the nation.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, when he plans to publish his Department's (a) review of and (b) consultation on the opt-out collective actions regime.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government’s call for evidence on the opt-out collective actions regime closed on 14 October 2025. Careful consideration is being given to responses received and a consultation on potential changes to the regime will be published in spring of this year.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that rural local authorities, such as North Yorkshire, are able to access the Growth and Housing Accelerator Fund on equal terms with urban areas.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The £165 million Growth and Housing Acceleration Fund (GHAF) in the third Road Investment Strategy (RIS3) will bridge funding gaps for critical transport works on or near the Strategic Road Network to unblock stalled housing and employment sites across England. National Highways launched the GHAF on the 21 April 2026, inviting eligible authorities to register potential developments for consideration.
The fund is open to applications from across England, including in rural areas such as North Yorkshire. To ensure rural authorities can access the fund on equal terms, National Highways has published eligibility and assessment criteria and will operate a fair and equitable process, applying those criteria consistently to all proposals.
The fund website can be found here:- Growth and Housing Accelerator Fund - National Highways
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how the Growth and Housing Accelerator Fund will support stalled housing developments in rural areas such as North Yorkshire; and what criteria National Highways will use to ensure that rural communities receive equitable levels of that funding.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The £165 million Growth and Housing Acceleration Fund (GHAF) in the third Road Investment Strategy (RIS3) will bridge funding gaps for critical transport works on or near the Strategic Road Network to unblock stalled housing and employment sites across England. National Highways launched the GHAF on the 21 April 2026, inviting eligible authorities to register potential developments for consideration. A continuous rolling programme of delivery will be published from the end of 2026/27.
The fund is open to applications from across England, including in rural areas such as North Yorkshire. National Highways published the eligibility and assessment criteria at launch and will apply them consistently, with a focus on proposals where a specific transport constraint is preventing development and where there is evidence of a genuine viability gap, strong deliverability, and value for money.
The GHAF will support targeted, smaller-scale interventions and complements, rather than replaces, wider strategic investment programmes. As such, National Highways expects the GHAF to support both rural and urban communities, with the pipeline developed through developments submitted by eligible authorities and assessed against the published criteria.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of the Employment Rights Act 2025 on a) the hospitality sector and b) levels of employment.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government published a comprehensive package of analysis on the impact of the Employment Rights Act [https://www.gov.uk/guidance/employment-rights-bill-impact-assessments].
The majority of employees will benefit from new protections in the Act and our assessment finds that workers in the low-paying sectors, including hospitality, will benefit the most from the Act.
Our analysis, supported by independent modelling and international evidence, demonstrates pro-employment effects are more likely, and deems the overall risk to employment to be low.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of introducing the full 20p discount to the business rates multiplier for retail, hospitality and leisure on the hospitality sector.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The 5p reduction in the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure (RHL) multipliers is worth nearly £1 billion per year and will benefit over 750,000 properties. Unlike RHL relief, the new multipliers are permanent, giving businesses certainty and stability, and there will be no cap, meaning all qualifying properties on high streets across England will benefit.
The Government is paying for this through a high-value multiplier on the top one per cent of most expensive properties. This includes many large distribution warehouses, such as those used by online giants. The high value multiplier is 33% more than the multiplier for small RHL properties.
Legislation set the maximum reduction to 20p as the bounds within which the Government could choose to operate, rather than a commitment to reduce the multipliers by this amount.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing the full 20p discount to the business rates multiplier for retail, hospitality and leisure.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The 5p reduction in the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure (RHL) multipliers is worth nearly £1 billion per year and will benefit over 750,000 properties. Unlike RHL relief, the new multipliers are permanent, giving businesses certainty and stability, and there will be no cap, meaning all qualifying properties on high streets across England will benefit.
The Government is paying for this through a high-value multiplier on the top one per cent of most expensive properties. This includes many large distribution warehouses, such as those used by online giants. The high value multiplier is 33% more than the multiplier for small RHL properties.
Legislation set the maximum reduction to 20p as the bounds within which the Government could choose to operate, rather than a commitment to reduce the multipliers by this amount.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 17 March 2026 to Question 119270 on Ammunition: Lead, if she will make an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential impact of a decrease in demand for ammunition containing lead following the introduction of proposed restrictions on commercial ammunition on a) the availability, b) the price, and c) the reliability of ammunition containing lead intended to be used for law enforcement purposes.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The decision to restrict the use of Lead in Ammunition under UK REACH was made following a consideration of the risk, the availability of alternatives and the socio-economic impacts. The UK REACH Restriction on lead in ammunition does not include the use of lead ammunition by the military, police, government security services, private maritime security companies and for border force purposes including storage. My officials have engaged with the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence on this restriction.
The UK REACH restriction gives a three-year transition period for most uses to allow users and suppliers time to adapt to the restriction. There are also several derogations and exemptions for continued use of lead ammunition after the ban comes into effect. Lead bullets can continue to be used at outdoor shooting ranges that meet the conditions necessary for the derogation. It is estimated that over 90% of shooting ranges will be able to meet these conditions. The majority of lead bullets used in the UK are used at outdoor shooting ranges. The use of small calibre bullets for live quarry shooting is not included in the restriction.
GB manufacturers can continue to manufacture and sell lead ammunition for non-civilian purposes that are not in scope of the restriction. GB manufacturers will be able to continue to export lead ammunition overseas. Lead ammunition can be imported for unrestricted uses.
The existing UK supply of lead rimfire bullets is a mix of domestic production and imports, while the supply of UK lead centrefire bullets is understood to be imported from abroad.
There is an opportunity for GB companies to innovate and secure economic growth in manufacturing non-lead ammunition more widely.
I would be happy to meet with the Rt Hon. Member.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 17 March 2026 to Question 119270 on Ammunition: Lead, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of a decrease in the size of UK orders for ammunition containing lead following the introduction of proposed restrictions on commercial ammunition on a) the ability for the UK to attract overseas orders of ammunition containing lead used for law enforcement purposes, and b) the price of such orders.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The decision to restrict the use of Lead in Ammunition under UK REACH was made following a consideration of the risk, the availability of alternatives and the socio-economic impacts. The UK REACH Restriction on lead in ammunition does not include the use of lead ammunition by the military, police, government security services, private maritime security companies and for border force purposes including storage. My officials have engaged with the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence on this restriction.
The UK REACH restriction gives a three-year transition period for most uses to allow users and suppliers time to adapt to the restriction. There are also several derogations and exemptions for continued use of lead ammunition after the ban comes into effect. Lead bullets can continue to be used at outdoor shooting ranges that meet the conditions necessary for the derogation. It is estimated that over 90% of shooting ranges will be able to meet these conditions. The majority of lead bullets used in the UK are used at outdoor shooting ranges. The use of small calibre bullets for live quarry shooting is not included in the restriction.
GB manufacturers can continue to manufacture and sell lead ammunition for non-civilian purposes that are not in scope of the restriction. GB manufacturers will be able to continue to export lead ammunition overseas. Lead ammunition can be imported for unrestricted uses.
The existing UK supply of lead rimfire bullets is a mix of domestic production and imports, while the supply of UK lead centrefire bullets is understood to be imported from abroad.
There is an opportunity for GB companies to innovate and secure economic growth in manufacturing non-lead ammunition more widely.
I would be happy to meet with the Rt Hon. Member.