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 30 June 2025 to Question 61897 on Responsible Dog Ownership Working Group, who the members of the taskforce are; which members are leading on each of the four themes; and when he expects the taskforce to report their findings to Government.

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

The Responsible Dog Ownership Taskforce is convened by Defra officials, and the membership is made up of representatives from animal welfare organisations, local authorities, the police and Welsh government. Each of these groups is represented on the four subgroups that lead on the key themes. The taskforce will report their findings in due course.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent discussions he has had with independent SMEs on the impact of his Department's policies.

Answered by Gareth Thomas - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The UK has 5.5m SMEs and we are committed to hardwiring their voice into government policy, engaging with them in various ways including through roundtables, visits and events.

Hundreds of individual SMEs have been engaged across all sectors and regions as part of co-designing our SME Strategy, including through roundtables across key areas, such as High Streets, Markets and Finance as well as specific policy events such as at Wilton Park.

Engagement with individual SMEs will continue to be a priority pre and post-launch of the SME Strategy to assess the impact of these policies on SMEs across the UK.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much and what proportion of funding the National-Level Transport Scheme allocates to the (a) investigation and (b) completion of business cases; and to the immediate construction of schemes that are ready to build.

Answered by Mike Kane - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The department does not recognise the ‘National-Level Transport Scheme.’ and is therefore unable to provide an answer to this question.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has completed the capital review of transport projects.

Answered by Mike Kane - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Capital Review was undertaken by an external panel of independent experts, and has now concluded.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will take steps to highlight the importance of safety at railway level crossings during the school summer holidays.

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

Educating users is critical to ensuring that level crossings are used safely and we look to Network Rail as the owner of these assets to do this. Network Rail produces a wide range of educational material on safety on and around the railway, including on level crossing safety, which it promotes through media campaigns and through school and community events. It recognises that the school holidays can pose particular challenges and focuses significant effort in attending local schools and community events in the vicinity of level crossings to promote railway safety.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 23 June 2025 to Question 59764 on Chagos Islands: Sovereignty, what estimate he has made of the cost of payments to Mauritius for the (a) FCDO and (b) MOD as part of the Agreement concerning the Chagos Archipelago including Diego Garcia.

Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The payments to Mauritius will be split between the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the Ministry of Defence. They will be published in the normal manner alongside other departmental spend in the annual accounts.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she plans to replace the business rates system from 2026-27; and whether she plans to hold a consultation to inform the new system.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

Over the course of this Parliament, the Government will create a fairer business rates system that protects the high street, supports investment, and is fit for the 21st century.

The Government published a Discussion Paper at Autumn Budget 2024 setting out priority areas for reform. This paper invited industry to help co-design a fairer business rates system that supports investment and is fit for the 21st century. The Treasury received over 160 written responses to that Discussion Paper and met with over 250 stakeholders.

On 17 February, the Government published a ‘forward look’ of the expected timeline for reforms announced at Autumn Budget 2024, and how stakeholders should engage with the Government on business rates reform going forwards.

In the summer, the Government will publish an interim report that sets out a clear direction of travel for the business rates system, with further policy detail to follow at Budget 2025.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of increases in employer National Insurance contributions on the (a) fiscal position and (b) sustainability of independent SMEs.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

A Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) was published alongside the introduction of the Bill containing the changes to employer NICs. The TIIN sets out the impact of the policy on the exchequer, the economic impacts of the policy, and the impacts on individuals, businesses, and civil society organisations, as well as an overview of the equality impacts.

The Office for Budget Responsibility also published the Economic and Fiscal Outlook (EFO), which sets out a detailed forecast of the economy and public finances.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of good quality agricultural land being used for the development of large scale solar farms.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Defra produces statistical estimates of agricultural land areas each year from the annual June Survey of Agriculture:

• In 2024, the utilised agricultural area (UAA) in England was 8.7 million hectares and this has remained broadly stable, only changing by around +/-1% each year over the past decade. Full breakdowns of agricultural land areas are published here Agricultural land use in England - GOV.UK

• In 2024, around 7,300 hectares of this land were used for solar panels (less than 0.1% of UAA). However, 50% of this land is still being used for agricultural production e.g. for livestock grazing.

It is recognised that solar can, when delivered in line with relevant planning policy, have a positive impact on the natural environment, and large-scale solar farms can contribute significant gains for local biodiversity with intelligent design and planning.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the effectiveness of school career services in (a) highlighting and (b) encouraging apprenticeships.

Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department has introduced a ladder of support and intervention, as set out in our careers statutory guidance, to support compliance with the provider access legislation which requires schools to offer pupils encounters with providers of technical education and apprenticeships. We will continue to monitor compliance, the support in place and the impact on young people.

We will also continue to monitor progress against the Gatsby Benchmarks, especially benchmarks 5, 6 and 7 which are relevant for highlighting and encouraging apprenticeships take-up.

Alongside this, the Careers and Enterprise Company’s (CEC) future skills questionnaire shows a move from 38% understanding of apprenticeships in year 7 to 88% by year 13.

There are multiple resources available to schools and young people to highlight and encourage apprenticeships participation:

• CEC’s network of Careers Hubs (covering 95% of schools and colleges) works with schools and colleges to support their careers education programmes.
• The Skills for Careers Apprenticeships support page, which can be found here: https://www.skillsforcareers.education.gov.uk/pages/training-choice/apprenticeships.
• CEC’s resource directory, found here: https://resources.careersandenterprise.co.uk/.
• ‘Amazing Apprenticeships’ resources and support for schools and colleges.
• The ‘Find an apprenticeship’ government website which currently hosts over 40,000 live vacancies and is available here: https://www.findapprenticeship.service.gov.uk/apprenticeshipsearch.

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 ensure that updates made to NHS England guidance help inform the NHS 10 Year Health Plan; and which stakeholders in the eating disorders sector have provided views in his Department's consultation processes.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The 10-Year Health Plan was developed jointly between the Department and NHS England. All relevant NHS England guidance has been considered as part of the development of the plan.

We received 1,650 submissions to the 10-Year Health Plan from partner organisations. This included responses from the Faculty of Eating Disorders and BEAT, the eating disorder charity. We also received responses from 120 mental health organisations who may have an interest in eating disorders. However, this information is not held in a format that allows this interest to be identified separately.

Found: withdrawn following assurances from the minister that the government was exploring the matter.14 • Dr Luke Evans

Found: Presented by Nick Timothy supported by John Cooper, Dr Luke Evans, Mr Richard Holden, Robert Jenrick

Found: Devolved powers in the development of the Code of Practice The Shadow Minister, Luke Evans MP raised