Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will meet (a) hon. and Rt hon. Members with constituencies in Devon and (b) key stakeholders to discuss steps to (i) conserve Dartmoor moorland and (ii) protect Dartmoor ponies.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
I will meet with hon. and Rt hon. Members representing constituencies in Devon, and key stakeholders, to discuss these issues.
Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
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 carry out full impact assessments of the (a) social and (b) economic impact of Environmental Land Management Schemes on upland farms.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Uplands farmers will have a key role to play in the future for delivering sustainable food production and our environmental targets. We are committed to Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes and will work with the sector to optimise the schemes, ensuring they produce the right outcomes for all farmers including upland farms, while delivering food security and nature recovery in a just and equitable way.
We plan to increase the transparency of schemes by publishing data on the impact they are having, including on upland farms. We will confirm next steps in the rollout of other ELM schemes, including how we will publish this data, in due course.
Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
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 enable agri-environment agreement applications before the current agreements expire.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Farmers with existing agri-agreements can apply to enter the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) if the activities under each scheme are compatible and they will not be paid twice for a similar activity on the same area of land at the same time. We are fully committed to making the Environmental Land Management schemes work for all farmers. We will confirm plans for further rollout of the schemes as soon as possible.
Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
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 help ensure that people farming on commons can benefit from (a) the Sustainable Farming Incentive and (b) Countryside Stewardship.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We want people farming on commons land to benefit from both the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and Countryside Stewardship and are working to make applications to the SFI service available to commoners and other shared graziers. We have asked farmers on commons interested in applying to SFI to contact the Rural Payments Agency so that we can help farmers to prepare to apply and be ready when the application service is available. We will set out more details of the Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier offer in due course. To help with a group’s costs of administering a common land SFI agreement, an annual additional payment of £7 per hectare of eligible common land is available.
Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the number of pensioners who will be affected by proposed changes to the eligibility criteria for the Winter Fuel Payment in South West Devon constituency.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Pension Credit data that is used is based on the 2010 Westminster Parliamentary constituencies, not 2024, in order to be comparable with the Winter Fuel Payments statistics. It is estimated that around 20,000 people in South West Devon constituency will be affected by the change in policy. This is based on Feb-24 Pension Credit statistics and 22-23 Winter Fuel Payments statistics (sources below).
This estimation is calculated by subtracting the number of Pension Credit recipients for South West Devon constituency from the number of Winter Fuel Payment recipients for South West Devon constituency. This is essentially the number of Winter Fuel Payment recipients pre-policy change not claiming Pension Credit, as an estimate of those who will no longer receive Winter fuel payment.
Also, the above figures do not take into account any potential increase in Pension Credit take-up we might see as a result of the Government’s Pension Credit Awareness Campaign. We do not have data on those additional Pension Credit claims by Parliamentary constituencies or local authorities.
Furthermore, the published Pension Credit figures refer to households, so the number of individuals will be higher (i.e., taking account of households where it is a couple claiming Pension Credit).
In addition to that, Pension Credit claimants are the majority of those that will be eligible for Winter Fuel Payments, not all. There are other pensioners who are eligible for Winter Fuel Payments (as they claim other means tested benefits) but they are not considered in these figures as it is not possible to do so.
Source:
The Winter Fuel Payments statistics are published here:
Winter Fuel Payment statistics for winter 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Pension Credit data is published here: Pension Credit – Data from May 2018
Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department is taking steps to coordinate efforts with local groups to protect Dartmoor ponies.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The new Moorland Offer, as outlined on the Government website, includes 10 new actions to be included in Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and two new and one amended action to be included in Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT). The new offer will provide payment for grazing with both cattle and ponies and will make both cattle and ponies eligible under the native breeds at risk supplement. The competition between the two has been removed as recommended in the Dartmoor review. In the new offer, ponies are exempt from stock removal requirements, in recognition that removal of ponies from moorland is neither feasible nor desirable in most circumstances.
Full details of the expanded and improved SFI offer available to farmers were published by the government on Tuesday 21 May 2024. Expressions of interest have now opened for those wishing to apply through the Sustainable Farming Incentive controlled roll out. The application window for Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT) will be confirmed shortly. Farmers and other eligible land managers can apply for an SFI agreement to run alongside their existing agreement, if:
They will not be paid twice for a similar activity or outcome on the same area of land at the same time (known as ‘double funding’). It should be noted that those managing land designated as SSSI will need to obtain Natural England consent for their grazing management actions; this is part of Natural England statutory duty regarding the protection of SSSIs. Those managing land not designated as a SSSI will not need to discuss their grazing management with Natural England to enter into a Sustainable Farming Incentive agreement.
The new moorland offer will be subject to monitoring and evaluation, particularly in the first year. Any change in the pony population during this time will be investigated and further mitigations will be explored if necessary.
Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to implement the recommendations of the report of the Independent review of protected site management on Dartmoor led by David Fursdon.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In April, the previous Government published the response to the independent review of protected site management on Dartmoor.
Central to that was agreeing to the recommendation of creating a land use management group for Dartmoor, to reinforce Dartmoor’s existing governance - providing a place for cooperation and collaboration between key stakeholders and our arm’s length bodies.
Following the general election, we are now in the process of appointing the independent chair of the group – with applications for the role closing on 3 September and interviews taking place shortly.
The new group will play a key role in delivering a Land Use Framework and land-use plan for Dartmoor, as well as the other recommendations attributed to the group in the government response.
Further information can be found on GOV.UK here.
Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans she has for transport improvements in the South West; and whether it remains Government policy to (a) fund the new Tavistock to Plymouth railway line, (b) provide funding to complete the South West Rail Resilience Programme and (c) implement the £2 bus fare extension.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government knows that Britain needs a modern transport network to help kickstart economic growth and is committed to delivering the biggest overhaul to transport in a generation, working closely with local leaders and industry partners across the country.
The Department is undertaking a full review of its infrastructure programme following the Chancellor’s statement on the public spending inheritance on 29 July, which will consider the South-West Rail Resilience Programme and the scheme to restore rail services between Plymouth and Tavistock.
With regards to the £2 bus fare cap, delivering reliable and affordable public transport services for passengers is one of the Government’s top priorities and we know how important this is for passengers and for local growth. The Government is urgently considering the most effective and affordable ways to deliver on these objectives.
Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his Department's timetable is for the completion of the new Urgent Care and Emergency Centre at Derriford Hospital, Plymouth.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service is broken and this Government is determined to fix it. We recognise the need for investment in our estate across the country.
As the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care announced, and as subsequently confirmed in the Chancellor’s statement on 29 July 2024, there is a full and comprehensive ongoing review of the New Hospital Programme, to provide a realistic and costed timetable for delivery. This will take into account the urgent need to rebuild the seven hospitals built mostly using reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete to protect staff and patient safety.
The Secretary of State will consider the findings and update Parliament on the outcome of the review reporting back to patients, clinicians, and local communities on the next steps for the New Hospital Programme. We will provide a clear and realistic timetable for delivery of the Programme and agree the investment needed to get patients the care they deserve.
Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she plans to take to increase access to bus services in (a) South West Devon constituency and (b) the South West.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The government knows that Britain needs a modern transport network to help kickstart economic growth. Good local bus services are an essential part of prosperous and sustainable communities. As announced in the King’s Speech, the government will introduce the Better Buses Bill to put the power over local bus services back in the hands of local leaders right across England, to ensure networks can meet the needs to the communities who rely on them, including in South West Devon and the South West.
We also plan to empower local transport authorities through reforming bus funding. By giving local leaders more control and flexibility over bus funding they can plan ahead to deliver their local transport priorities. The Department will work closely with local leaders and bus operators to deliver on the government’s ambitions.