Rachel Gilmour

Currently, Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) produce an energy efficiency rating (EER) based on the estimated running costs of the property. Basing the rating and recommendations of the EPC on cost is done with the aim of generating improvement which will lead to a reduction in energy costs.

Last week, the Government published the consultation on EPC Reform, developed through close collaboration between DESNZ and MHCLG. The Government proposes using four key metrics for domestic EPCs: "fabric performance," "heating system," "smart readiness," and "energy cost." The Government is reviewing the methodology underpinning EPCs to make it fit for purpose to support net zero. The department is also reviewing consultation responses for the new building physics model, the Home Energy Model.

Evidence shows that heat pumps are suitable for a diverse range of housing archetypes in the UK and the clear majority of properties.

Modern heat pumps, capable of running efficiently at similar temperatures to an existing boiler, can increasingly be used in homes previously considered unsuitable for electrification. Other low-carbon heating solutions are available for properties that are not suited to a heat pump, and the government will continue to assess and support the options for all properties to decarbonise and reduce their energy use.

The Government has made no such specific assessment, as tariffs and energy contracts are a commercial matter for suppliers. However, the Government does want consumers to have access to a range of tariffs, so they can choose the contract that best suits their needs and can help to reduce energy bills. In circumstances where a supplier may not currently be able to offer a smart meter, Ofgem has been clear that suppliers are obligated under their licence conditions to ensure that a suitable metering system is installed.

We are considering how Project Gigabit can support the rollout of fast, reliable broadband to premises that have been descoped from Airband’s contracts with Connecting Devon and Somerset. This may include bringing more premises into the scope of Project Gigabit contracts in the region or supporting suppliers to deliver more projects through the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme. In some cases, premises that were set to be connected by Airband have since been included in suppliers’ commercial plans, so will no longer require public subsidy to receive access to a gigabit-capable broadband connection.

The industry-led migration from analogue to digital landlines (“the PSTN migration”) poses some specific risks for rural constituencies, for instance where areas may be more prone to power outages or lack mobile coverage. The Department is working with communications providers to ensure that they are mitigating these risks wherever possible, for example by encouraging the industry to provide improved power resilience to vulnerable customers.

Since the general election, the government has brought together communications providers, government departments, local government, telecare providers and water companies to ensure that the transition proceeds smoothly and stably. This has led to a new Charters of Commitments signed by industry to ensure additional protections for vulnerable customers and for Critical National Infrastructure.

This government recognises the vital role that youth services and activities play in improving young people’s life chances and wellbeing. As set out in section 507B of the Education Act 1996, local authorities have a statutory duty to secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient provision of educational and recreational leisure-time activities for young people in their area. This is funded through the Local Government Settlement which amounts to over £60 billion this year.

This is in addition to the DCMS investment of over £500 million in youth services to ensure every young person has access to regular clubs and activities, adventures away from home and opportunities to volunteer. Within the Tiverton and Minehead constituency, DCMS has directly provided funding for Duke of Edinburgh to be run within schools, encouraging young people to develop skills, build confidence, and make a difference in their communities through volunteering, access to the outdoors, and skills development.

The department has no plans to undertake this specific assessment, but we have evaluated the impact of poverty on educational outcomes. Evidence shows that disadvantaged pupils and those with additional needs are more likely to fall behind and need extra support to achieve and thrive.

That is why the department is working to make sure that all children and young people have access to a variety of enrichment opportunities at school as an important part of our mission to break down barriers to opportunity. We recognise that these activities are a vital way for children and young people to gain skills and strengthen their sense of school belonging, supporting them to thrive.

The Department for Work and Pensions strives to set affordable and sustainable repayment plans and encourages customers to make contact if they are unable to afford the proposed repayment rate.

When a customer makes contact because they are experiencing financial hardship, the rate of repayment can be reduced or, depending on the customer’s financial circumstances, a temporary suspension of repayment can be agreed. There is no minimum amount a customer has to repay.

As seen in the measures announced by my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the Autumn Budget 2024 to drive up opportunity and drive down poverty, a new Fair Repayment Rate will be introduced from April 2025, reducing Universal Credit deductions overall cap from 25% to 15%. This measure will help approximately 1.2 million of the poorest households benefit by an average of £420 a year.

Ensuring schools have the resources and buildings they need is a key part of our mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life.

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education is unable to meet at present due to constraints on her diary. However, departmental officials will be in touch with you shortly to arrange a meeting with the honourable member who are best placed to provide detail on the condition of the school.

The Government appreciates and values the vital work of our fruit and vegetable growers and recognises their important role in maintaining a secure supply of home – produced fresh produce.

The Fruit and Vegetable Aid Scheme is an EU legacy scheme and legislation in place to close it on the 31 of December 2025. As part of our mission-driven government, the Department is now considering how we can achieve our ambitious, measurable and long-term goals for all our farming sectors.

Defra meets regularly with growers to discuss a range of issues. These discussions help inform future policy development and help us understand what support the sector needs to help it thrive.

The Government appreciates and values the vital work of our fruit and vegetable growers and recognises their important role in maintaining a secure supply of home – produced fresh produce.

The Fruit and Vegetable Aid Scheme is an EU legacy scheme and legislation in place to close it on the 31 of December 2025. As part of our mission-driven government, the Department is now considering how we can achieve our ambitious, measurable and long-term goals for all our farming sectors.

Defra meets regularly with growers to discuss a range of issues. These discussions help inform future policy development and help us understand what support the sector needs to help it thrive.

The Government appreciates and values the vital work of our fruit and vegetable growers and recognises their important role in maintaining a secure supply of home – produced fresh produce.

The Fruit and Vegetable Aid Scheme is an EU legacy scheme and legislation in place to close it on the 31 of December 2025. As part of our mission-driven government, the Department is now considering how we can achieve our ambitious, measurable and long-term goals for all our farming sectors.

Defra meets regularly with growers to discuss a range of issues. These discussions help inform future policy development and help us understand what support the sector needs to help it thrive.

The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) authorises veterinary medicinal products under the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013 (as amended) to protect public health, animal health, the environment, and promote animal welfare. This involves ensuring medicines are approved only when their benefits outweigh any potential risks.

For pet owner safety, all veterinary medicines undergo a comprehensive User Risk Assessment before market authorisation. Clear safety warnings are included in product literature to minimise risks during proper use. These risks are also considered against the consequences of not using such medicines, such as the spread of flea- and tick-borne diseases, which can impact both pets in terms of parasitic disease and humans because of the public health issues of disease transference (zoonotic disease).

Environmental safety is also considered during authorisation. While current international guidelines assume minimal environmental exposure from companion animal medicines, the VMD now believes there is sufficient evidence to support a review of these guidelines, despite existing data gaps. The VMD have established the cross-government Pharmaceuticals in the Environment (PiE) Group, whose aim is to provide advice on possible policy options to help reduce pharmaceutical pollution in the UK, including disposal. An immediate priority for the PiE Group is to develop a strategy to reduce the levels of fipronil and imidacloprid being detected in UK surface water.

The Bass Fisheries Management Plan published in December 2023 sets out a number goals and measures to deliver long-term sustainable management of bass fisheries in English and Welsh waters. This includes working with the newly established bass management group, comprising commercial and recreational sectors, scientists, regulators, policy officials and environmental interests. This group will help (a) improve communication and understanding of bass regulations, and collaboration between regulators on targeted enforcement; and (b) in the longer term consider the merits of a move away from bycatch limits towards a catch limit or quota approach. The bass management group will consider the adequacy of regulations for all bass fishermen, including charter boats, in these discussions.

At the Budget on 30 October, the Chancellor announced £1.6 billion of capital funding for English local highway authorities for highway maintenance for the 2025/26 financial year, an increase of £500 million or nearly 50% compared to the current financial year.

Funding allocations for individual local highway authorities for 2025/26, including Somerset Council, will be confirmed in due course. It is entirely a matter for Somerset Council how it spends this highway maintenance funding based on local needs, priorities, and circumstances.

I’m pleased to advise that the Rail Minister Lord Hendy has accepted an invitation to meet with the Chair of the Peninsula Rail Task Force, Cllr Andrea Davis, and officials are currently making the necessary arrangements.

Officials continually monitor the performance of Great Western Railway services, including instances of overcrowding, and actively hold operators to account through their contracts when they run less capacity than agreed. The Rail Minister additionally meets with Train Operating Companies to review their performance. We work closely with Great Western Railway to match supply to demand within operational and financial constraints including the provision of additional summer services. Great Western Railway is also exploring opportunities to increase the capacity of its rolling stock fleet.

Good local bus services are an essential part of prosperous and sustainable communities. As announced in the King’s Speech, the government will pass the Better Buses Bill to put the power over local bus services back in the hands of local leaders right across England. The government knows that every community will have its own unique needs from its public transport network and wants to empower local leaders to work with operators to design networks that meet these needs, including considering the use of different types of services, such as community transport and demand responsive transport services, alongside regular stopping services to deliver comprehensive coverage.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) continues to engage regularly with stakeholders as we consider CMS reform. We are currently considering the recommendations and our response to the Gingerbread report ‘Fix the CMS’.

The CMS Service Modernisation Programme has delivered improvements to the customer experience enabling parents to access their on-line My Child Maintenance Case, ensuring parents can report changes of circumstances and access their digital communications at any time of the day. In addition, caseworker training to support vulnerable customers has been updated following invaluable engagement with stakeholders.

The CMS has recently consulted on significant reforms and are analysing the responses. This included removing the Direct Pay service and managing all CMS cases in one service to allow the CMS to tackle non-compliance faster.  The consultation also sought views on how victims and survivors of domestic abuse can be better supported to use CMS and whether removing Direct Pay completely would benefit victims and survivors of domestic abuse. The Government will publish a response in due course.

DWP are committed to providing the best possible support for all our customers, including the most vulnerable in society. Within Universal Credit, we recognise that customers have individual needs and different barriers, so we train and support all our work coaches to be able to respond appropriately to a customer’s situation.

We have no plans to assess the impact of the journal system on the mental health of applicants and users., Independent research published in 2018 showed that the majority of customers found the journal easy to use. The DWP Customer Experience Survey for 2023-2024 showed that 88% of people found it easy to use their UC online account.

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Hon. Member for Poole on 11 October 2024 to Question 7389.

Palliative care services are included in the list of services that the integrated care boards (ICBs) in England, including the NHS Devon ICB, under which Devon Hospiscare falls, must commission. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.

Whilst the majority of palliative and end of life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices like Devon Hospiscare, also play in providing support to people at end of life, and their loved ones.

We do understand that, financially, times are difficult for many voluntary and charitable organisations, including hospices, due to a range of concurrent cost pressures. We will consider next steps on palliative and end of life care, including funding, in the coming months.

The Department holds regular meetings with adult social care stakeholders, including service providers and representative bodies, to discuss key issues and developments, such as the impact of the Budget on the sector.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. The CQC has powers under the Health and Care Act 2008 to regulate adult social care services, to make sure they provide safe, effective, compassionate, and high-quality care. Where concerns on quality or safety are identified, the CQC uses the regulatory and enforcement powers it has available, and will take action to ensure the safety of people drawing on care and support.

Providers of any size are required to be registered with, and therefore regulated by, the CQC, when they carry out personal care for people who are unable to provide it for themselves because of old age, illness, or disability, as defined in Regulation 2 (Interpretation) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014).

Any amendments to the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 would be subject to the usual Parliamentary process, which would include a public consultation, and thus an opportunity to consider the merits of further regulation of social care providers.

The following table shows a count of patient safety incidents, reported as occurring where the incident category is absconder or missing patient, broken down by care setting, each year from 2020/21 to 2023/24:

Source: National Reporting and Learning System, NHS England.

Notes:

1. an absconder or missing patient is not a direct equivalent of ‘reported missing’ as it includes issues such as leaving without signing a discharge against medical advice form, or failing to return from agreed leave on time, rather than consisting solely of reports of patients who abscond or who are reported missing to the police.
2. the data also includes reports of patients who are missing from a follow-up, for instance, those who should have been asked to return to a clinic for review but whose call back for a further appointment has been missed.

The Overseas Territories (OTs) work to uphold international standards such as those set out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Financial Action Task Force on tax transparency and countering illicit financial flows respectively. Responsibility for implementing their recommendations into legislation is a matter for OT governments.

At the Joint Ministerial Council last month, I confirmed the UK Government's expectation that OTs implement full Publicly Accessible Registers of Beneficial Ownership (PARBOs). Full PARBOs have already been introduced in Montserrat and Gibraltar, and commitments were made by the Falkland Islands and Saint Helena to introduce these by April 2025. Saint Helena has recently passed the relevant legislation.

Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands committed to implement Legitimate Interest Access Registers of Beneficial Ownership which offer the maximum possible degree of access and transparency whilst containing the necessary safeguards to protect the right to privacy in line with respective constitutions, at the latest by June 2025.

The Government takes International Parental Child Abduction (IPCA) very seriously. When a British child has been abducted, the FCDO's consular staff provide empathetic and practical support to those affected, including to signpost them to relevant partner organisations. The FCDO has also published guidance to assist parents affected by IPCA. FCDO Consular staff will contact the hon. Member for Tiverton and Minehead for more details of the case, to offer relevant advice.

The information requested is published as part of the OBR’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook (EFO). The published table sets out the effects of the threshold freeze on taxpayers, by showing estimated numbers with and without indexation of the thresholds and the impact of the thresholds being frozen. This information has been updated in the EFO at each recent fiscal event.

The below is an extract from this published table:

The full table is available as Table 3.18 in the detailed forecast of receipts: October 2024 Economic and fiscal outlook – detailed forecast tables: receipts (obr.uk)

The Government has taken a number of difficult but necessary decisions on tax, welfare, and spending to fix the public finances, fund public services, and restore economic stability after the situation we inherited from the previous administration.

The Government has protected the smallest businesses from the impact of the increase to employer National Insurance by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500, which means that 865,000 employers will pay no employer NICs at all next year.

More than half of employers will see no change or will gain overall from this package and eligible employers will be able to employ up to four full-time workers on the National Living Wage and pay no employer NICs.

The OBR recently reviewed its forecasts of tax receipts from alcohol duty and commented on this in its Economic and Fiscal Outlook, published in October. Its updated forecast reflects lower-than-anticipated alcohol consumption in 2024-25, and a reduction in alcohol consumption growth over the medium term.

Following a request for further detail in respect of the price elasticities used in its alcohol duty costings, the OBR also published updated price elasticities for alcohol in July 2024.

The government carefully considers OBR forecasts as part of its tax policy-making process and keeps all taxes under review.

At the recent Budget, the Chancellor confirmed that the current temporary wine easement will end as planned from 1 February 2025. By this time, the wine industry will have had over two years to adapt to the strength-based alcohol duty system. The summary of impacts from the alcohol duty reforms announced at Spring Budget 2023, including the wine easement, can be found here: Alcohol Duty Reforms - GOV.UK

The Budget also announced that alcohol duty will be uprated in line with RPI inflation on 1 February 2025, except on qualifying draught products. A Tax Information and Impact Note was published alongside this Budget announcement. This is available here: Alcohol Duty uprating - GOV.UK

HMRC plans to evaluate the impact of the new rates and structures three years after the changes took effect on 1 August 2023.  The Government welcomes evidence from industry on the impact of the changes so far.

As with all taxes, the Government keeps alcohol duty rates under review during its Budget process. Any substantive tax changes would be accompanied by a relevant Tax Information and Impact Note.

The current temporary duty easement for wine is due to end on 31 January 2025.

The Government recognises the need for an effective multi-agency response to missing person investigations.

The Missing Persons Authorised Professional Practice (APP), issued by the College of Policing, sets out best practice guidance for all missing person investigations for police forces in England and Wales in order to prevent missing incidents as well as ensure that all safeguarding partners play a role in an investigation. This includes multi-agency enquiries. The APP for missing persons is publicly available on the College’s website.

In addition to the APP, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for Missing Persons has developed the ‘Multi-agency response for adults missing from health and care settings’ framework, which is being rolled out, and the ‘Missing Children from Care’ framework, which has been piloted in West Yorkshire. These frameworks outline good practice that can be adopted by local areas when setting up their own multi-agency protocols for the strategic and operational response to a missing incident, with an aim to ensure that the appropriate safeguarding partner responds in the best interest of the missing person.

The Government remains committed to implementing the measures in the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023, including appointing members to a Supported Housing Advisory Panel.

The recruitment of Panel members has resumed and applications closed on 9 December. We will appoint the panel as soon as possible.

Local authorities have strong powers and incentives to tackle empty homes. They have the discretionary powers to charge additional council tax on properties which have been left unoccupied and substantially unfurnished for one or more years. The maximum premium that a council can apply increases, depending on the length of time that the property has been empty for, with a premium of up to 300% on homes left empty for over ten years.

Local authorities can also use powers to take over the management of long-term empty homes to bring them back into use in the private rented sector. Local authorities can apply for an Empty Dwelling Management Order (EDMO) when a property has been empty for more than two years, subject to the production of evidence that the property has been causing a nuisance to the community and evidence of community support for their proposal. More information can be found here.

Heat Pumps are often a highly effective low carbon alternative to a traditional gas boiler and can save families around £100 a year compared to a gas boiler through the effective use of a smart tariff. However, as with any repair, social housing providers like Magna should ensure any heat pumps installed are well maintained and fixed promptly in line with their regulatory standards when maintenance issues arise.

While Housing Associations are independent organisations and are responsible for their own performance and management, tenants can raise a formal complaint through their landlord’s complaint process and through the Housing Ombudsman if the landlord fails to take appropriate action.

Registered providers of social housing must ensure that the safety of tenants is considered in the design and delivery of landlord services and take reasonable steps to mitigate any identified risks to tenants.

In addition, registered providers must take action to deliver fair and equitable outcomes for tenants, including by understanding the diverse needs of tenants, including those arising from protected characteristics, language barriers, and additional support needs.

Housing associations may refer a tenant to a village agent but there is not a mechanism through which they can transfer the duty of care. In any situation where a village agent provides care or support for vulnerable tenants, a housing association remains responsible for considering the safety of tenants and their diverse needs.

From April 2025 councils will have the power to charge a discretionary premium of up to 100% on dwellings which are unoccupied and substantially furnished. The Government recognises there may be circumstances where it may not be appropriate for a premium to apply. That is why the Government is introducing exceptions to premiums from April 2025. Further information on these exceptions is available in: guidance.