Kevin Hollinrake

Details of Ministerial meetings with external organisations are published routinely on Gov.uk as part of the Government’s transparency agenda.

We are not aware of any announcements that investment highlighted at the International Investment Summit has subsequently been withdrawn or reduced. The Office for Investment continues to support business on all the investment projects announced at the summit among many others.

Small businesses are the beating heart of our high streets, our communities, and essential to our economic success.

Professional mentoring can have a positive impact on business growth. Opportunities to access a mentor are actively signposted through the Help to Grow campaign site at https://helptogrow.campaign.gov.uk/.

The Autumn Budget 2024 confirmed continued funding for Help to Grow: Management, which provides dedicated mentoring support, and to local Growth Hubs, many of which provide access to business mentors.

The Government will bring forward a Small Business Strategy Command Paper in 2025, setting out the Government’s detailed vision for supporting small businesses.

Since July, the Department for Business and Trade has undertaken an extensive programme of engagement around the Employment Rights Bill and broader Plan to Make Work Pay.

Such engagement has been underpinned by a strong commitment to working in partnership with businesses and trade unions to ensure policy is firmly pro-business and pro-worker.

This approach to engagement has received praise from businesses and trade unions alike and will continue throughout and beyond the passage of the Employment Rights Bill.

Details of Senior Officials’ and Ministers’ meetings with external organisations and individuals are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK.

Since July, the Department for Business and Trade has undertaken an extensive programme of engagement around the Employment Rights Bill and broader Plan to Make Work Pay.

Such engagement has been underpinned by a strong commitment to working in partnership with businesses and trade unions to ensure policy is firmly pro-business and pro-worker.

This approach to engagement has received praise from businesses and trade unions alike and will continue throughout and beyond the passage of the Employment Rights Bill.

Details of Senior Officials’ and Ministers’ meetings with external organisations and individuals are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK.

Infrared heating is a promising technology, which when used with room-by-room control systems, could reduce electricity use relative to a direct electric heating system. However, previous Government research, such as the Cost Optimal Domestic Electrification Project, has found that lifetime costs of infrared heating are generally higher than other electric heating technologies, like heat pumps. The Government remains open to new evidence that would challenge this view and on the role infrared heating could play in decarbonising our buildings.

The regulation of hazardous waste is a devolved matter, and the information provided therefore relates to England only.

Waste exports are reported using a different classification system to domestic movements of hazardous wastes. The two datasets are therefore not directly comparable meaning the precise information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.

In 2023, 6,017,823 Tonnes of Hazardous waste were produced in England. Of this, 256,518 Tonnes (4%) was exported for treatment and recovery overseas. There are robust systems and processes in place to ensure that these wastes go to the right place and are treated appropriately.

The top 5 categories of hazardous waste exported overseas from England are as follows:

In May 2024, Defra officials were asked by the previous Government to prepare a briefing note for the Northern Ireland Assembly’s Democratic Scrutiny Committee on the implications for Northern Ireland of EU Regulation 2024/1157 on shipments of waste. The briefing note is published here:

https://www.niassembly.gov.uk/globalassets/committee-blocks/windsor-framework-democratic-scrutiny-committee/reg-eu-20241157/a-response-from-the-uk-gov-by-defra---30-may-2024.pdf

Defra officials continue to assess the implications of EU Regulation 2024/1157 for businesses in Great Britain that trade with the EU.

As announced in the King’s Speech on 17 July 2024, the government will introduce a Buses Bill later this parliamentary session, which will put decision-making into the hands of local leaders, including in rural areas right across England. The Bill will seek to give local areas the choice of pursuing bus franchising, high quality partnerships with the private sector, or local authority owned bus companies. This will allow local areas to determine how best to design their bus services so that they have control over routes and schedules to ensure they reflect the needs of the communities they serve, including considering how community transport services, alongside regular stopping services, can improve the experience for bus passengers. The Bus Services Act 2017 requires that community transport operators are consulted as part of the franchising process.

Reducing unwarranted variation in cancer treatment and outcomes is a strategic priority for the NHS Cancer Programme. NHS England commissioned the Royal College of Surgeons to deliver 10 cancer clinical audits. Outcomes from the audits will support the National Health Service to increase the consistency of access to treatments and help guide quality improvement initiatives. Officials within the Department and NHS England are in the process of considering the audit’s findings and next steps.

Furthermore, the Department supports statutory integrated care systems (ICSs) in delivering NHS services across England. ICSs are partnerships of organisations which come together to plan and deliver joined up health and care services, to improve the lives of the people who live and work in their area. This includes considering adequate healthcare provision for populations in towns and rural areas and working collaboratively to plan for population change.

The organisations within an ICS include the NHS, local government, social care providers, charities, and other organisations working together to provide more joined up care for people, and to improve the outcomes for their populations.

Increasing the diagnostic rates of cancer is a priority for the Government, and general practices (GPs) are key in achieving this goal. To encourage a wide range of groups, including people in rural and farming communities, to see their GP, NHS England runs Help Us Help You campaigns to increase the knowledge of cancer symptoms and address barriers to acting on them, to encourage people to come forward as soon as possible to see their GP. 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 also increasing capacity in GPs, so patients have better access to GPs. We will recruit over 1,000 newly qualified GPs through an £82 million boost to the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, which will increase the number of appointments delivered in GPs, secure the future supply of GPs and appointments, and take pressure off those currently working in the system. We will also bring back the family doctor by incentivising continuity of care so patients can see the same doctor at each appointment, which is key to managing ongoing conditions.

NHS England and the integrated care boards are responsible for ensuring healthcare needs of local communities are met. These responsibilities include considering adequate healthcare provision, care, and wider support for local populations, including in remote and rural areas, and for those in the community who have needs linked to ageing and isolation.

There are two National Health Service schemes in England which provide assistance for travel to hospital or other NHS premises for specialist NHS treatment or diagnostics tests, as set out below.

The NHS Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme provides financial assistance to patients in England who do not have a medical need for transport, but who require assistance with the costs of travelling to receive certain NHS services. The NHS Non-Emergency Patient Transport Services provide funded transport where a medical condition means that a patient would struggle to safely attend their treatment independently.

I refer the honourable Member to the answer I gave to Question UIN 12606 on 11 November 2024.

The Government has published information about the reforms to agricultural property relief at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/what-are-the-changes-to-agricultural-property-relief#:~:text=From%206%20April%202026%2C%20the,rather%20than%20the%20standard%2040%25. Almost three-quarters of estates claiming agricultural property relief in 2026-27 are expected to be unaffected by these reforms.

Estates claiming agricultural property relief are required to provide HMRC with the value of agricultural assets, and this is used when calculating whether tax is due. However, it is not possible to provide constituency level analysis on claims which may be made in the future.

The government announced at Autumn Budget that it will commission an independent review of the Loan Charge to help bring the matter to a close for those affected whilst ensuring fairness for all taxpayers.

Further details about the review will be set out in due course.

HMRC publishes data regularly about the number of claims and the cost of non-structural tax reliefs, such as agricultural property relief and business property relief. The information can be found at www.gov.uk/government/statistics/main-tax-expenditures-and-structural-reliefs.

HMRC publishes data regularly about the number of claims and the cost of non-structural tax reliefs, such as agricultural property relief and business property relief. The information can be found at www.gov.uk/government/statistics/main-tax-expenditures-and-structural-reliefs.

There are plans to mark the Long March, and the subsequent repatriation of the Prisoners of War (under Operation EXODUS) on Defence social media channels in 2025. This will form part of the wider VEDay80 and VJDay80 Communications campaigns, aiming to educate younger generations to the sacrifices made by our Second World War veterans. Defence has supported, and will continue to support, the commemoration of key events of 80 years ago that signalled the end of World War Two. This includes the anniversaries of the Battle of Monte Cassino, D-Day, and Operation Market Garden; my Department will also work with others into 2025 to commemorate the significant anniversaries of VE Day and VJ Day.

I refer the hon Member to the answer given to Question UIN 11941 on 8 November 2024.

I refer the hon Member to the answer given to Question UIN 11941 on 8 November 2024.

As of 26 July 2024, we have issued 10 letters confirming to postmasters that their convictions have been quashed by the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Act 2024.

The Ministry of Justice, Northern Irish Executive and Scottish Government are taking all reasonable steps and are working at pace to identify those within scope of the legislation. To do this, the Government is examining data spanning multiple decades and from multiple sources, including but not limited to the Post Office, the Police National Record, and court files. It is necessary that this process is undertaken carefully.

The previous Government said publicly that most letters confirming to individuals that their convictions have been quashed would be sent by the end of July. However, since then inconsistencies have been identified between the different datasets and the Government has therefore decided to conduct extra checks to ensure that all decisions on scope are correct.