Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of funding for specialised rural crime teams.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Rural crime can also have devastating consequences for countryside communities and the agricultural sector. This financial year we are providing the first Home Office funding since 2023 for the National Rural Crime Unit, a national policing unit which help forces tackle rural crime priorities and is a great example of farmers and police working together at national and local level.
Under our Safer Streets Mission reforms, rural communities will be safeguarded, with tougher measures to clamp down on equipment theft, anti-social behaviour, strengthened neighbourhood policing and stronger measures to prevent farm theft and fly-tipping.
The Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee will also ensure that every community in England and Wales will have named and contactable officers dealing with local issues, and that neighbourhood teams spend the majority of their time in their communities providing visible patrols and engaging with local communities and businesses. This will be supported by the delivery of up to an additional 3000 officers into neighbourhood teams by Spring next year, as part of our ambition to deliver 13,000 neighbourhood officers into police forces across England and Wales by the end of this parliament.
We worked closely with policing to develop the Neighbourhood Policing Programme. Our approach to delivery in 2025/26, which is year 1 of a 4-year programme, is designed to deliver an initial increase to the neighbourhood policing workforce in a manner that is flexible, and can be adapted to the local context and varied crime demands police forces face. The precise workforce mix is therefore a local decision.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of changing the English indices of deprivation to include rurality as a factor.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The most recent iteration of the English Indices of Deprivation was published in September 2019 and all data tables and resources are available online here - https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/english-indices-of-deprivation-2019
The department is currently working on an update and confirmed recently that the English Indices of Deprivation 2025 will be published within a provisional October/November 2025 timeframe. This has been published on GOV.UK.
As part of this work, DEFRA has contributed funding to investigate rural deprivation. This collaborative project is considering what deprivation in rural areas is, data sources and methods to help quantify it and more formal guidance on the use of the Indices and their application to rural areas. A report on rural deprivation will form part of the updated English Indices of Deprivation release.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the size of the backlog on Valuation Office Agency decisions.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) is working as quickly as possible to clear cases, and moving staff to where there is the greatest customer demand. The VOA is focusing on the oldest cases first, and where customers are facing financial hardship.
The VOA is replacing IT systems with modern cloud-based platforms that will deliver significant efficiencies. It is also upskilling its workforce to ensure there is flexibility in managing a wide range of cases and improving its digital services to make it easier for customers to self-serve.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps she is taking with the Secretary of State for the Home Department to tackle violence against women and girls.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Equalities Ministers and their officials are working closely with the Home Office, and other Government departments to develop a cross-government strategy on tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), to be published in the Autumn.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support food security.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Food security is national security. We need a resilient and healthy food system, that works with nature and supports British farmers, fishers and food producers.
As part of the Government’s Plan for Change we are delivering on the Government’s New Deal for Farmers which includes a raft of new policies and major investment to boost profits for farmers.
We've allocated a record £11.8 billion to sustainable farming and food production over this parliament.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to increase levels of funding available for farmers.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We have allocated a record £11.8 billion to sustainable farming and food production over this parliament. We are investing more than £2.7 billion a year in farming and nature recovery, the largest budget for sustainable food production in our country’s history to put healthy, nutritious food on our tables. We are working closely with farmers and industry stakeholders to design a future Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer that fairly and responsibly directs funding.
That's only part of our commitment to farmers.
We have also protected farmers in trade deals and provided a five-year extension to the Seasonal Worker route, giving farms certainty to grow their businesses.
We are using our own purchasing power to back British produce, with an ambition, where possible, for half of food supplied into the public sector to be produced locally or certified to high environmental standards.
We are reforming the planning system to support clean energy projects that align with our Clean Power 2030 ambitions, helping farm businesses to become more profitable and resilient.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve the quality of maternity care.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
While there are outstanding examples of care in NHS maternity services, we know this is not the experience that all women have, and there are significant issues that need addressing.
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care recently announced an independent Investigation into NHS maternity and neonatal services to understand the systemic issues behind why so many women, babies and families experience unacceptable care. It began its work this summer and will produce an initial set of national recommendations by December 2025. The Secretary of State also announced the establishment of a National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce that will use the recommendations from the Investigation to develop a national plan, with families and partners, to drive improvements across maternity and neonatal care.
We are also taking a set of immediate action to start delivering the changes needed.
These include actions to boost accountability and safety as part of the Government’s mission to build an NHS fit for the future, and actions to hold the system to account. Specific actions include embedding a system to better identify safety concerns, rolling out a programme to all trusts to tackle discrimination and racism, and new best practice standards in maternal mortality.
Although significantly more action is required, there has been some good progress made in a range of areas. They include:
- Achieving full population coverage of Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Services for women with or at risk of mental health issues;
- Rollout to every Trust in England of the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle, helping to reduce still births and pre-term birth;
- As of June 2025, there are 24,888 full time equivalent midwives working in NHS Trusts and other core organisations in England. This is an increase of 1,326 (5.6%) compared to June 2024. There are also over 3,000 full time equivalent Obstetrics and gynaecology’ consultants working in NHS Trusts and other core organisations in England. This is over 100 (4.8%) more compared to June 2024; and
- Nationally rolling out a new programme to reduce avoidable brain injuries in childbirth, following a successful pilot.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will include pet treatments as a significant source of pesticides as part of the UK Pesticides National Action Plan 2025.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK Pesticides National Action Plan 2025 relates to plant protection products, and therefore does not cover pet treatments.
Veterinary medicines are regulated under a separate legislative framework to pesticides: the Veterinary Medicines Regulations (VMR) 2013, as amended. These regulations ensure that all veterinary medicines undergo rigorous scientific assessment, including environmental risk assessments, before being authorised for use. The Veterinary Medicines Directorate has formed the Pharmaceuticals in the Environment (PiE) Group as a UK cross-government platform to enable discussion and knowledge exchange relating to pharmaceuticals in the environment from human, veterinary and, where there is cross over, agricultural and non-agricultural sources. They have recently set out a roadmap of activities to address the levels of fipronil and imidacloprid detected in UK waterways.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that supported housing demand is met.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the Rt Hon. Member to the answer given to Questions UIN 69642 on 4 September 2025.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has had recent discussions with retailers on the safety and security of people who are lone working in stores.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has the policy lead for workplace health and safety in Great Britain. However, the primary responsibility for managing risk to health and safety lies with employers. An employer is the person or organisation that is legally responsible, under health and safety law, for managing and controlling risks created by their work activities. It is for the employer to determine the best way to manage those risks taking account of the circumstances of their business and work activity and to take appropriate action if employees report any health and safety concerns.
Local authorities are responsible for the regulation of health and safety in most retail businesses. They can use criteria such as injury rates, trends, numbers and demographics of people at risk and implementation of effective control measures to inform their interventions, and ensure compliance with regulations. HSE does not collect this data centrally.
There may be greater risks for lone workers without direct supervision or someone to help them if things go wrong, and an employer must identify the risks to lone workers and put control measures in place to protect them. HSE provide guidance on lone working: Lone working: Protect those working alone - HSE which includes advice on violence in the workplace. This guidance was updated in 2022 and remains fit for purpose.
HSE has no plans to commission a review or discuss with retailers the safety of lone workers in stores.