Neil Hudson

As I said to the House on 10 December, Storm Darragh brought strong winds to the UK late last week, and saw a RED weather warning issued for wind covering parts of England and Wales. The Government immediately took action to prepare for the arrival of Storm Darragh. Ahead of the storm, we issued an emergency alert to over 3 million people in affected regions under a red weather warning, urging them to stay indoors. That was the largest use of the early warning system outside of a test scenario.

The Storm resulted in impacts affecting a number key services and infrastructure including power supply, transport, and telecoms. Power outages caused over two million customers to lose their electricity supply. Although the majority of customers had their power restored very quickly, our priority continues to be on ensuring that every household without power is reconnected as quickly as possible. Engineers for the National Grid and other network operators are working to ensure all possible steps are being taken to re-connect the small number of remaining customers off supply. The latest information they have provided is that remaining customers will be reconnected by the end of this week.

Over 10,000 properties were protected from flooding, however, support is being provided by the Environment Agency and local authorities to the small number of households impacted by flooding.

Although the Storm has passed, the Government will continue to follow the recovery efforts and the work of local responders who are supporting communities affected by the Storm and will ensure that lessons identified are used to further improve our resilience to severe weather.

I am grateful for the response from local resilience forums around the country. I praise our emergency responders and utility workers, who have worked so hard in difficult conditions to help the public manage the impacts of the storm.

All risks in the National Risk Register, including those related to animal and plant health, are kept under review to ensure that they are the most appropriate scenarios to inform emergency preparedness and resilience activity and to reflect the risk landscape.

The risks that meet the threshold for inclusion in the NRR would have a substantial impact on the UK’s safety, security and/or critical systems at a national level.

Lead government departments develop generic capabilities that can be used to respond to impacts, regardless of the risk that caused them. This means the government can respond flexibly to the widest range of risks.

At Budget the Chancellor announced a number of measures to support high street businesses, ideally in Epping Forest’s regeneration including permanently lowering tax rates for retail, hospitality and leisure properties from 2026/27, extending RHL relief and the Small Business Multiplier for another year and additional funding to tackle retail crime through additional training for police and retailers and programmes cracking down on organised gangs.

The Government also announced its intention to bring forward a Small Business Strategy Command Paper in 2025. This will set out the Government’s vision for supporting high street businesses including measures that will address access to finance, investment opportunities from overseas and domestic markets and building business capabilities.

This will complement the Government’s work to give local leaders and communities greater powers over empty properties and powers to revitalise their high streets.

The Government is investing £123 million UK-wide in grassroots facilities via the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme in 2024/25. At the Autumn Budget on 30 October 2024, the Government confirmed our continued support for elite and grassroots sport by investing in multi-use facilities. Further details will be confirmed in due course.

The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone, regardless of background, has access to and benefits from quality sport and physical activity opportunities.

The Government provides the majority of funding for grassroots sport through our Arm’s Length Body, Sport England - which annually invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding in areas of greatest need to tackle inactivity levels through community-led solutions.

Epping Forest has benefitted from £424,995 of investment under the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme, the Park Tennis Court Renovation Programme, and the Swimming Pool Support Fund to date.

The Government is acting to support more people to get onto the pitch wherever they live through the delivery of £123 million UK-wide through the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme in 2024/25.

The Inclusion 2024 programme is available to all schools in the country, including Epping Forest. It provides both expert support and free resources, and can help schools enhance opportunities for young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) to engage in P.E. and school sports.

The Government is committed to doing more to ensure that everyone, including children, young people, and those with disabilities, has access to and benefits from quality sport and physical activity opportunities. Sport and physical activity is central to achieving our health and opportunity manifesto missions, with the biggest gains coming from supporting those who are inactive to move more.

The Culture Secretary recently attended the launch of ParalympicGB’s Equal Play Campaign where she expressed her determination to put sport at the heart of the school curriculum. This includes opening up opportunities for all young people, including those with disabilities, to be able to access sport and physical activity at school.

The Government provides the majority of support for grassroots sport through Sport England - which annually invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding. Sport England’s work focuses on bringing the health and sport sectors together at community level and to champion physical activity with local leaders to develop interventions tailored to communities. Since 2019, Sport England has invested over £195,000 in Epping Forest for grassroots sport & physical activity.

Sport England also works to ensure that each of their programmes impact directly on disabled people and those with a long-term health condition, with initiatives like the 'We are Undefeatable' campaign and partnerships with disability organisations.

The department recognises that the financial position of the higher education (HE) sector is under pressure and this government has acted quickly to address this.

The department accepted, in full, the recommendations of the independent review of the Office for Students (OfS) undertaken by Sir David Behan. Sir David has been appointed as interim OfS Chair to oversee the important work of refocusing their role to concentrate on key priorities, including the HE sector’s financial stability. On 2 December, the OfS announced temporary changes to its operations to allow greater focus on financial sustainability. The OfS will work more closely with providers under significant financial pressure in order to protect the interests of students. The department continues to work closely with the OfS to monitor any risks and ensure there are robust plans in place to mitigate them.

Moreover, the government has made the difficult decision to increase tuition fee limits in line with forecast inflation (3.1%). The department also recognises the impact that the cost-of-living crisis has had on students. Maximum loans for living costs for the 2025/26 academic year will also increase by 3.1%. Longer-term funding plans for the HE sector will be set out in due course.

As my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education set out in her oral statement on 4 November, this government will secure the future of HE so that students can benefit from a world-class education for generations to come.

The department also recognises the financial position of the further education (FE) sector is very important. As announced in the Autumn Budget 2024, the government is providing an additional £300 million for FE to ensure young people are developing the skills they need to succeed. We will set out in due course how that is distributed.

This government remains committed to supporting the teaching of modern foreign languages in England’s schools. Languages provide an insight into other cultures and can open the door to travel and employment opportunities. They also broaden pupils’ horizons, helping them flourish in new environments. Having the opportunity to study a modern foreign language should be part of the broad and rich education that every child in this country deserves.

The department will continue to fund the Mandarin Excellence programme for the 2024/25 academic year.

The Spending Review settlements for 2025/26 were confirmed at Budget on 30 October and business planning is underway so that programmes can be given certainty about funding as soon as possible.

The public consultation on the Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education statutory guidance was open for eight weeks and received over 14,300 responses.

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has been clear that children’s wellbeing must be at the heart of this guidance for schools. Therefore, the government will look carefully at the consultation responses, discuss with stakeholders and consider the relevant evidence, including the Cass Review which has since been published, before setting out next steps.

The department’s home to school transport policy aims to make sure that no child is prevented from accessing education due to a lack of transport. Local authorities must arrange free travel to school for children of compulsory school age, 5 to 16, who attend their nearest school and would not be able to walk there because of the distance, their special educational needs, disability or mobility problem, or because the nature of the route means it would be unsafe for them to do so.

The department formally consulted on the statutory guidance for local authorities in 2019, and continued to engage with key partners until the updated guidance was published in June 2023. We continue to engage with local authorities on a regular basis on this issue.

The department knows that parents often struggle to get the right support for their children, including having to go through long and difficult education, health and care (EHC) plan processes.

We want to ensure that EHC plan applications are processed promptly and, where required, plans are issued so that children and young people can access the support they need. The department has listened to parents, schools and local authorities and is reflecting on what practice could be made consistent nationally.

Where local authorities are failing to deliver consistent outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), we work with them using a range of support, and challenge, improvement programmes and SEND specialist advisors, to address identified weaknesses.

There are 232 approved Food Standards Agency (FSA) abattoirs across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland and the FSA records which are sole traders, partnerships, and incorporated companies.

The majority of food processing plants are overseen by local authorities, and while their trading names are published by the FSA and Food Standards Scotland, this does not give an indication of the makeup of ownership.

Defra remains focused on supporting the farming, meat and food processing sectors, and the collection of this level of detail is not required or necessary to facilitate the delivery of any Official Controls.

Under the UK Government’s Lead Government Department (LGD) model, the responsibility for severe storms and weather in England rests with the following organisations:

• Risk Identification and Assessment: The Met Office.
• Prevention/Resilience, Preparation and Emergency Response: The Cabinet Office (where the impacts are expected to be cross-cutting), DfT for Air, Rail, Roads and Ports and Defra for flooding.
• Recovery: DfT for Air, Rail, Roads and Ports. MHCLG for flooding.

Further detail can be found here: The Roles of Lead Government Departments, Devolved Administrations and Other Public Bodies (HTML) - GOV.UK

Designated LGDs are responsible for leading work to identify serious risks and ensuring that the right planning, response and recovery arrangements are in place for their responsibilities. This includes if their sector is designated as a Critical National Infrastructure Sector (CNI), which Transport is.

Since the start of the current UK Storm Season on 1 September 2024, Defra has worked with DfT on the following:

• An exercise of the National Flood Response Centre.
• The operational response to flooding from caused by heavy rainfall September as well as named storms Ashley, Bert, Connall and Darragh.
• Reporting on damaged flood defences that could affect the operation of key transport infrastructure.

We hold monthly calls with DfT officials to share situational awareness and do these more frequently when the need arises. More detail on specific work undertaken by DfT and the Transport Sector on transport provision in areas affected by storms should be requested directly from DfT.

BSE is not a contagious disease. There is no risk to animal and human health or food safety as a result of this isolated case.

Unlike classical BSE, which occurs through the consumption of contaminated feed, atypical BSE is believed to occur spontaneously at a very low level in all cattle populations. There have been just 3 cases in the UK since 2014.

The animal was tested under our surveillance system, demonstrating its effectiveness.

British beef remains safe to eat and can continue to be exported to trading partners.

Atypical BSE is not a notifiable disease for the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH). This case does not affect our WOAH ‘controlled’ risk status for BSE, nor the application submitted in August this year to have it further reduced to ‘negligible’.

To reduce the risk of foot and mouth disease (FMD) to the UK, in collaboration with our National Reference Laboratory and international partners, Defra monitors the threat presented by different trade routes and works. The risk of incursion is currently considered to be low. This risk evaluation informs our preparedness activities from targeting of measures at the border, domestic disease surveillance, to the strains procured for our vaccine bank and any communications to raise the awareness among livestock keepers.

Specific measures in place to reduce the risk of FMD incursions include requiring imported meat and dairy products to be accompanied by animal and public health certification confirming that they come from an area that is free from FMD; strict rules for the movement of animals and genetic material, and a ban on certain animal products as livestock feed. We continue to remind livestock keepers of the importance of maintaining strict on-farm biosecurity, compliance with the swill feeding ban, and the reporting of all suspicions of notifiable disease promptly.

Defra’s contingency plan for exotic notifiable diseases, the FMD control strategy and associated guidance describe the measures that need to be taken prevent and, in the event of an incursion, control outbreaks of FMD. The plans are reviewed and tested including through national response exercises and routine testing. The next exercise is currently being planned.

To reduce the risk of foot and mouth disease (FMD) to the UK, in collaboration with our National Reference Laboratory and international partners, Defra monitors the threat presented by different trade routes and works. The risk of incursion is currently considered to be low. This risk evaluation informs our preparedness activities from targeting of measures at the border, domestic disease surveillance, to the strains procured for our vaccine bank and any communications to raise the awareness among livestock keepers.

Specific measures in place to reduce the risk of FMD incursions include requiring imported meat and dairy products to be accompanied by animal and public health certification confirming that they come from an area that is free from FMD; strict rules for the movement of animals and genetic material, and a ban on certain animal products as livestock feed. We continue to remind livestock keepers of the importance of maintaining strict on-farm biosecurity, compliance with the swill feeding ban, and the reporting of all suspicions of notifiable disease promptly.

Defra’s contingency plan for exotic notifiable diseases, the FMD control strategy and associated guidance describe the measures that need to be taken prevent and, in the event of an incursion, control outbreaks of FMD. The plans are reviewed and tested including through national response exercises and routine testing. The next exercise is currently being planned.

The Department does not hold information on the number of fires caused by batteries in electric bikes. The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) published analysis of e-cycle and e-scooter fires in August 2024, which is available on gov.uk. It includes a summary of matters such as where these fires occurred; what types of e-cycle and e-scooter were involved; and how many fires led to fatalities.

In February 2024, the Department published detailed safety guidance on how to buy, store and charge e-cycles and e-scooters. The Department for Business and Trade also launched a “Buy safe, be safe” campaign and further guidance in October 2024 to help users of e-cycles reduce the risk of battery fires. All of the information is readily accessible on gov.uk.

The Government has also introduced the Product Safety and Metrology Bill. This will create powers that will allow government to set specific product regulations, including on batteries used in e-cycles.

In the meantime, all e-cycles sold in the UK must comply with various product safety requirements, as must all mains battery chargers. The Department continues to work with other Government Departments and other stakeholders to understand why battery fires occur so that the Government can take any further action necessary to tackle the issue.

The Department collects road traffic casualty data for e-scooters using data reported by the police to the Department for Transport. In 2023 there were 1,292 collisions involving e-scooters, compared to 1,411 in 2022. There were 1,387 casualties in collisions involving e-scooters, compared to 1,502 in 2022, and of these 1,117 casualties were e-scooter users, compared to 1,154 in 2022.

Our best estimate, after adjusting for changes in reporting by police, is that there were 416 seriously injured and 965 slightly injured in collisions involving e-scooters, this compares to 441 and 1,049 respectively in 2022.

January to June 2024 provisional e-scooter personal injury collisions are due to be published at the end of November. January to December 2024 provisional figures are due to be published in Spring 2025.

Transport in London is devolved and is the responsibility of the Mayor of London and TfL. Government has regular discussions with TfL on a range of issues, however, it is for them to assess the quality of their services and make decisions on investment.

We have engaged with the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) and farmers to raise awareness on how they can access services through various channels including partnering with NFU at county shows, providing NFU an informative toolkit and continuation of inviting NFU to our regular stakeholder events.