Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will include representation from the organic and sustainable farming sector on the Farming and Food Partnership Board.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The first meeting of the Farming and Food Partnership Board took place on 25 March 2026 with an initial membership of seven industry leads and experts. This initial group includes representation across farming and food as well as the retail and out of home markets. The first meeting considered the need for additional members ahead of the next Board meeting.
The first meeting also agreed task and finish sub-groups would be useful to help deliver the Board’s mission and objectives, alongside the sector groups developing Sector Growth Plans. Defra expects the nature of these task and finish groups to emerge as the Board gets into its work plan for the coming year. These groups will provide an opportunity for a wider range of stakeholders to engage with the work of the Board, and that could include organic and sustainable farming representation.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on whether medical students will qualify for maintenance grants when these are reintroduced.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is committed to supporting the aspiration of every person who meets the requirements and wants to attend higher education. We must, therefore, reform the higher education system to better support disadvantaged students.
Maintenance grants will support students studying courses aligned with the government’s missions and the Industrial Strategy at Levels 4 to 6 under the Lifelong Learning Entitlement, including technical qualifications and degrees. The new grants will provide disadvantaged students with up to £1,000 extra per year on top of existing maintenance loans, increasing the cash in student’s pockets without increasing their debt.
It is vital that the list of subjects that will be eligible for maintenance grants is informed by the best and most up-to-date evidence available on future employment and skills priorities. The full list of eligible subjects will be confirmed in advance of maintenance grant introduction in the 2028/29 academic year.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to raise awareness of the disabled child addition to Universal Credit among eligible claimants.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP’s digital Universal Credit (UC) application pathway uses automated prompts to ask claimants proactively whether any children are disabled. Where this is confirmed, the system guides them through the relevant eligibility criteria, helping ensure the correct addition is applied at the point of claim. This is currently the primary mechanism to identify likely eligibility and raise claimant awareness at the point of claiming UC.
Claimants are informed through routine DWP communications of the importance of reporting any changes of circumstances. This would include where a child becomes disabled after the initial claim or a disabled child joins the household.
DWP maintains extensive internal and public‑facing guidance concerning the Disabled Child Addition. This guidance is refreshed and reviewed regularly and enables DWP Staff to answer customer queries, as well as customers to self-serve via gov.uk.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on extending court and tribunal fees to challenging Section 13 rent increases through the First-Tier Tribunal.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice keeps all fees under continuous review to ensure that His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has the resources necessary to operate fairly and efficiently, while ensuring access to justice is protected for all.
The Government has laid legislation to begin the process of implementing a new fees framework in the Property Chamber. The purpose of the new framework is to deliver a fair and sustainable Property Chamber that is accessible to all. The framework includes a fee of £47 for applications to appeal a rent increase, with no hearing fee – this is one of the lowest fees across HMCTS.
The Help with Fees scheme will always be available to provide financial support to those who cannot afford to pay fees. In 2024/25, we remitted £91 million of fees income to protect access to justice.
The changes are subject to Parliamentary consent.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of extending courts and tribunal fees to challenging Section 13 rent increases through the First-Tier Tribunal on the number of rent increase challenges.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice keeps all fees under continuous review to ensure that His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has the resources necessary to operate fairly and efficiently, while ensuring access to justice is protected for all.
The Government has laid legislation to begin the process of implementing a new fees framework in the Property Chamber. The purpose of the new framework is to deliver a fair and sustainable Property Chamber that is accessible to all. The framework includes a fee of £47 for applications to appeal a rent increase, with no hearing fee – this is one of the lowest fees across HMCTS.
The Help with Fees scheme will always be available to provide financial support to those who cannot afford to pay fees. In 2024/25, we remitted £91 million of fees income to protect access to justice.
The changes are subject to Parliamentary consent.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she plans to take to align with EU REACH regulatory protections from chemical flame retardants.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The revised Environmental Improvement Plan, published 1 December 2025, includes a commitment to reform UK REACH, to enable protections that address chemical pollution to be applied more quickly, efficiently and in a way that is more aligned with our closest trading partners, especially the EU, by December 2028.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 2 February 2026 to Question 108602 on School Milk, what steps her Department is taking to ensure schools and Local Authorities are aware of the expectation that they make reasonable adjustments for children who do not drink dairy milk.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The School Food Standards regulate the food and drink provided at both lunchtime and at other times of the school day. They allow schools the freedom to provide plant-based drinks as needed, including plain soya, rice or oat drinks enriched with calcium, and combination and flavoured variations of these drinks.
Section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 places a duty on maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units in England to make arrangements for supporting pupils with medical conditions. The accompanying statutory guidance makes clear to schools what is expected of them in taking reasonable steps to fulfil their legal obligations and to meet the individual needs of pupils with medical conditions, including allergies.
We are currently consulting on revised statutory guidance on ‘Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions’. The consultation can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/proposal-on-support-for-pupils-with-medical-conditions-at-school’. This seeks views on proposals to strengthen how schools meet their duties, including improvements to allergy safety and broader medical condition management. Our aim is to ensure that every child can access education safely and confidently, regardless of their health needs or allergy.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what cross-government work her Department is undertaking to mitigate the risk of food shortages, supply chain disruption and food price inflation arising from global ecosystem collapse.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK has a resilient food supply chain and is equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption. Food security is built on supply from diverse sources, strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes. Whilst the UK has a high degree of food security, the UK Food Security Report 2024 shows that food security cannot be taken for granted. Climate and geopolitical volatility have weakened aspects of food supply stability since 2021, although food availability or the quantity of food available to the UK has been maintained thanks to continued resilience in food production and the global trading system. Defra works with industry and across Government to monitor risks that may arise. This includes extensive, regular and ongoing engagement in preparedness for, and response to, issues with the potential to cause disruption.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time is to process a Personal Independence Payment appeal in Bristol East constituency.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The average time to process a Personal Independence Payment (PIP) appeal for all PIP appeals registered in the Bristol East constituency since PIP was introduced can be found below.
Mean appeal processing time (weeks) | Median appeal processing time (weeks) |
25 | 21 |
Source: PIP Administrative Data
Notes:
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent progress has been made to update the National Information Centre on Children of Offenders online information resource.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The National Information Centre on Children of Offenders (NICCO) website was created in 2016 as a partnership between Barnardo’s and HMPPS. It was constructed to replace an earlier site called iHOP which Barnardo’s had developed jointly with the Department for Education as an information centre for professionals working with the children of prisoners.
As well as being an updated information hub, NICCO also became the repository of the family strategy documents created by all prisons.
Discussions are currently underway to review how best to retain and update the information held on the NICCO site.