Richard Tice

The Business Impact Target, which was repealed by the previous government through the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act, was the principal mechanism through which government made an estimate of the total annual cost of regulation to business. In its place, the reformed Better Regulation Framework encourages an earlier and more thorough assessment of impacts of individual regulatory proposals. This government will use the framework to ensure that new regulations achieve their objectives, with the lowest possible cost to businesses and households.

Critical minerals, including rate earth elements are crucial for the UK in terms of security, clean energy, industry and emerging technologies. That is why the Government is developing a critical minerals strategy to ensure we are diversifying our supply chains, delivering the security we need and supporting the many UK-based companies that mine and process around the world. The strategy will be published this year.

The transition to net zero is critical for driving growth and delivering new jobs. We have been clear that decarbonisation should not mean deindustrialisation.

Many companies that have decarbonised become more efficient and productive. The challenge can be the capital costs of transitioning and that is why the government is providing extensive support and access to funding for industry, including through the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund, Aerospace Technology Institute and Advanced Propulsion Centre UK. At the same time, the number of jobs in the low carbon and renewable energy economy grew by 27% between 2020 and 2022, more than 5 times faster than overall UK employment (source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/clean-power-2030-action-plan-assessment-of-the-clean-energy-skills-challenge/assessment-of-the-clean-energy-skills-challenge#fn:6)

The Government is in negotiations with British Steel’s shareholder regarding the company’s commercial plans to transition to productive and efficient methods of steel production.

As with any responsible Government, we continue to consider all possible outcomes, and we stand ready to support local workers and local communities as needed.

The steel industry declined more than 50% in the last decade because there was no strategy to protect and grow this strategically important sector. We are developing a Steel Strategy which we will publish in Spring 2025, and we have committed up to £2.5bn of investment to rebuild the UK steel industry.

Set out in the table below are the number of cases reported to and collected by the Citizens Advice consumer service over the past 5 years.

The Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme required that consumers seek advice from a suitably qualified TrustMark registered installer before they applied for a voucher. It also required that installations meet Publicly Available Standard (PAS) 2035.

If a homeowner believes that any installation work carried out in their home under a Government scheme is faulty, they should first contact the installer. Where the installer has failed to adequately resolve the issue or have ceased trading, they may refer to TrustMark’s website which contains further guidance on steps consumers can take if things go wrong and the dispute resolution process: (https://www.trustmark.org.uk/homeowner/support/complaints-process).

The Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) published its analysis of the cost of reaching net zero by 2050 in chapter 3 of the July 2021 edition of its UK Fiscal Risk Report. As the OBR has noted, “the costs of failing to get climate change under control would be much larger than those of bringing emissions down to net zero.” Spending Review 2021 set out £26 billion of public capital investment in net zero over four years across Government.

This data is published by the Office for Budgetary Responsibility and Ofgem.

Renewables provide energy security by reducing our exposure to gas price volatility, as well as providing significant savings for those households and businesses directly benefitting from small-scale renewable measures, such as solar panels.

The Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) published its analysis of the cost of reaching net zero by 2050 in chapter 3 of the July 2021 edition of its UK Fiscal Risk Report. As the OBR has noted, “the costs of failing to get climate change under control would be much larger than those of bringing emissions down to net zero.

The criticality of minerals, including Rare Earth Elements (REEs), are evaluated through the Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre (CMIC), led by the British Geological Survey. CMIC determines criticality on the basis of economic vulnerability and supply risk, through indicators including Environmental, Social and Governance standards.

Building on this assessment, the Department for Business and Trade will work with industry to publish a new Critical Minerals Strategy this year. This will help secure our supply chains, including for Rare Earth Elements, for the long term and support the green industries of the future.

I have raised my concerns about the reporting of mobile connectivity with Ofcom, but according to Ofcom’s Connected Nations report (published on 5 December 2024) 99% of the Boston and Skegness constituency has 4G geographic coverage from all four mobile operators, and that 5G is available from at least one operator outside 99% of all premises.

The Government wants all areas of the UK, including Boston and Skegness constituency, to benefit from good quality mobile coverage. Our ambition is for all populated areas to have higher-quality standalone 5G by 2030.

We work closely with the mobile industry and are committed to ensuring we have the right policy and regulatory framework to support investment and competition in the market

His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) is responsible for VAT policy. HMT has published its assessment of the impacts of removing the VAT exemption that applied to private school fees, which can be found on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-on-private-school-fees/ac8c20ce-4824-462d-b206-26a567724643#who-is-likely-to-be-affected.

This overall assessment considers special educational needs and disability (SEND) but does not provide a separate assessment broken down by SEND.

Overall, the government predicts that, in the long-term steady state, there will be 37,000 fewer pupils in the private sector in the UK as a result of the removal of the VAT exemption applied to school fees. This represents around 6% of the current private school population. This movement is expected to take place over several years, and most moves will occur at natural transition points. Of this number, the government estimates an increase of 35,000 pupils in the state sector in the long-term steady state, with the other 2,000 consisting of international pupils who do not move into the UK state system, and domestic pupils moving into homeschooling. This state sector increase represents less than 0.5% of total UK state school pupils, of which there are over nine million.

The government expects the revenue costs of pupils entering the state sector in England to steadily increase to a peak of around £0.3 billion per annum after several years. However, the government expects to raise around £1.8 billion per annum by 2029/30 from this VAT policy and from removing private schools’ eligibility for business rates charitable rate relief.

Longer term impacts on those who move schools may be lessened by revenue raised by this measure being used to help the 94% of children who attend state schools.

It is important to note that pupils who need a local authority-funded place in a private school will not be impacted by the changes. The majority of pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) are educated in mainstream schools, whether state-maintained or private, where their needs are met. The overwhelming majority attend state schools. To protect pupils with SEN that can only be met in a private school, local authorities that fund these places are able to reclaim the VAT they are charged on those pupils’ fees.

The department supports local authorities to provide suitable school places for children and young people with SEND through annual high needs capital funding. This can be used to deliver new places in mainstream and special schools, as well as other specialist settings. At the Autumn Budget 2024, the government announced a £2.3 billion increase to the core schools' budget in 2025/26, increasing per pupil funding in real terms. This included a £1 billion uplift to high needs funding in 2025/26, providing additional support for the more than one million children in the state sector with SEND.

The proposals to require every local authority in England to maintain registers of children not in school, which are to be included in the future Children’s Wellbeing Bill, are intended to help local authorities identify all home educating families in their areas, so that they can ensure children are receiving a safe and suitable education. To ensure these registers can operate effectively, parents of eligible children will be required to provide some information to their local authorities but, as part of the implementation of the legislation, the department would engage with stakeholders to ensure that any burdens on families are minimised. In addition, the children not in school proposals will also include a duty on local authorities to provide support to home educating families should they want it, which will help more families to deliver a suitable education, ensuring more children receive the high standard of education they deserve.

The information requested can be found in the attached document.

3-Nitrooxypropanol is the active ingredient in a methane suppressing feed product commercially known as Bovaer.

The Food Standards Agency has advised milk from cows given Bovaer, an authorised feed additive used to reduce methane emissions, is safe to drink. Bovaer has undergone a rigorous safety assessment and is approved for use in Great Britain.

Part (a) - The UK has a resilient food supply chain and is equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption. We produce 62% of all the food we need, and 75% of food which we can grow or rear in the UK for all or part of the year. Food security is built on supply from diverse sources, strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes.

UK consumers have access through international trade to food products that cannot be produced here, or at least not on a year-round basis. This supplements domestic production, and also ensures that any disruption from risks such as adverse weather or disease does not affect the UK's overall security of supply.

Defra works with industry and across Government to monitor risks that may arise. This includes extensive, regular and ongoing engagement in preparedness for, and response to, issues with the potential to cause disruption to food supply chains.

Part (b) - Farmers are the backbone of Britain, and we recognise the strength of feeling expressed by farming and rural communities in recent weeks. We are steadfast in our commitment to Britain’s farming industry because food security is national security.

Around 500 claims each year will be impacted and farm-owning couples can pass on up to £3m without paying any inheritance tax.

Not only is the Government confident that these reforms will not impact food production, our Budget has set out a £5 billion farming budget over two years – dedicating more money than ever before to sustainable food production.

The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) is responsible for licensing foreign vessels to fish in English waters and for fisheries enforcement of vessels within English waters. The MMO has boarded and inspected foreign vessels at sea on 1451 occasions since the start of 2019 to the 31 October 2024. Infringements were detected during 585 of these inspections. In addition to these inspections at sea, 36 infringements by foreign vessels were detected remotely. The number of enforcement actions the MMO has taken against foreign fishing vessels operating illegally in English waters in each of the last five years is:

Fisheries control and enforcement is a devolved matter and, as such, Fisheries Authorities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are responsible for managing fisheries risk and conducting inspections in their respective waters.

The UK agricultural sector is both robust and adaptable and operates in an open market with the value of commodities established by those in the supply chain. We have seen evidence of this particularly in recent years following global events such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

Recognising that farmers should always receive a fair price for their products, the Government is committed to tackling contractual unfairness wherever it exists.

Innovation is key in supporting our efforts to improve agricultural sustainability. The Government wants the UK to be a great place for technology innovators to start and grow their businesses, and access both domestic and international market adoption opportunities. We have already announced our intention to bring forward the secondary legislation needed to implement the Precision Breeding Act.

The Government is also fully committed to Environmental Land Management schemes and will optimise them so they produce the right outcomes for all farmers, while delivering food security and nature recovery in a just and equitable way.

Defra will continue to work closely with stakeholders from all farming sectors on the best way to support farmers and the agricultural industry over the long-term, designing our policies in partnership.