Richard Tice

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.

The Government recognises the important position our steel companies play in the supply chains for a number of key industries. This is why we are developing a steel strategy. With regards to the transition of Port Talbot, Tata will be importing steel slab and coil for a temporary period whilst the new electric arc furnace (EAF) is being built. We continue to prioritise engagement with British Steel.

Neither Tata Steel nor British Steel are currently critical suppliers into UK defence programmes. High quality steel, including for the Royal Navy’s new Dreadnaught class submarines, is already being made by EAF steel producers.

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 UK government recognises the strategic importance of the steel industry for economic growth and national security. We are committed to developing the sector.

Many countries, particularly across Europe, are replacing aging blast furnaces with Electric Arc Furnaces (EAFs). While the future of the remaining blast furnaces ultimately lies with British Steel, as I recently conveyed to the Hon Gentleman, the government is reviewing innovative technologies, such as Direct Reduced Iron, to support primary steelmaking in the future.

EAFs will also bolster our economic security by reducing our reliance on imports. This shift will enable us to use the abundant supply of scrap metal available in the UK, thereby increasing the resilience of our steel sector and the wider UK supply chain from global shocks.

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 UK has halved its emissions, having cut them by around 53% between 1990 and 2023.

Each year the department publishes updated energy projections, analysing and projecting future energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in the UK. They take into account climate change policies where decisions on policy design and funding are sufficiently advanced to allow robust estimates of policy impacts to be made. These projections allow us to monitor progress towards meeting the UK’s carbon budgets.

The latest published projections can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-and-emissions-projections-2022-to-2040

Final estimates of UK greenhouse gas emissions are also published annually.

The UK’s diverse power mix reduces dependence on one generation source, ensuring security of supply in a range of conditions. Transitioning away from fossil fuels and towards a range of home-grown clean energy technologies will reduce the UK’s vulnerability to unstable energy prices while ensuring energy security. The Government is accelerating the development and deployment of low-carbon flexible energy generation and storage, including batteries and pumped hydro, to manage the intermittency of wind and solar. The Clean Power 2030 action plan, set for release by year-end, will detail the Government's strategy for achieving a secure, clean power system by 2030.

Landowners, businesses and homeowners that have electrical equipment, such as pylons or towers, sited on their land have the right to compensation for the value of their land, as well as for any losses or expenses incurred. Acquiring authorities can also put in place discretionary schemes offering additional compensation. As compensation is provided by the electricity network licence holders, not the Government, we cannot provide an estimate of potential costs.

More broadly, the Government is committed to ensuring that communities who live near new clean energy infrastructure can see the benefits and is currently considering how to deliver this most effectively.

Developers of electricity networks and all nationally significant infrastructure projects in England and Wales need to assess the impacts of their proposals, including on agricultural land, natural habitats and in terms of construction and maintenance. This is done through Environmental Impact and Habitats Regulations Assessments, which are then considered during the consenting process. This includes consideration of safeguarding Best and Most Versatile agricultural land and ensuring the protection of natural habitats.

All electricity transmission network projects, regardless of location, must go through the independent and robust planning process. Developers must evidence that they have engaged and consulted with communities. They must take account of community views, environmental impacts, efficiency of the system and the cost to consumers, and consider alternative options.

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.

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.

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 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.