Asked by: Sarah Bool (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department took to consult with service (a) personnel and (b) veterans during the development of the Strategic Defence Review 2025.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
The MOD issued a call for evidence, explicitly inviting responses from military personnel and veterans that saw 1,700 individuals provide over 8,000 responses. We also conducted an internal survey to gather additional insights from those currently serving which saw 800 responses. The Review and Challenge Panels also included serving and retired military personnel.
Asked by: Sarah Bool (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether HMRC has issued tax liability demands to people who have been victims of investment fraud; and what steps she is taking to review such cases to avoid penalising victims of financial crime.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC is responsible for managing the tax system and is required by law to collect tax due. It must apply the law correctly and individuals are responsible for their own tax affairs.
Where individuals find themselves with unexpected tax bills as a result of taking bad advice from a third party on an investments scheme, this does not mitigate any tax that is legally due.
HMRC works with individuals to understand the facts of each case and only pursues tax where there is a genuine tax liability. It tailors its approach to individual circumstances and takes a supportive and proportionate approach to recovering tax due, including offering ‘Time to Pay’ instalment arrangements where appropriate, and providing extra support for customer who need it.
Asked by: Sarah Bool (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the mental health challenges facing farmers in England; and what steps his Department is taking to improve access to mental health support services in (a) rural and (b) agricultural communities.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We use existing channels to listen to, and monitor, impacts of our policy changes on farmers. This includes regular meetings with farming welfare charities, listening to feedback from farming organisations, speaking to farmers directly at events, and through our Farmer Opinion Tracker.
Defra are working in consultation with communities, farming support organisations and experts across government with the aim of improving mental and physical health outcomes for the agricultural community.
Delivery of mental health interventions sits with the Department for Health and Social Care, who are investing in mental health to ensure it receives the same attention as physical health. This includes the hiring of 8,500 new mental health support workers, which will reduce delays and provide faster treatment closer to people’s homes – including in rural communities.
The Government is also building a national network of Young Futures hubs, which will be present in every community and will deliver support for young people facing mental health challenges.
Asked by: Sarah Bool (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he plans to take through the Strategic Defence Review 2025 to tackle recruitment shortfalls in the armed forces; and how these will be implemented.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The current Government inherited a crisis in recruitment and retention from the last administration.
The Strategic Defence Review (SDR) 2025 is clear that Defence must now meet the longstanding challenge of recruiting and retaining new generations with different requirements. We are committed to the vision that long-term success depends on reconnecting society with the Armed Forces and the purpose of Defence, and for recruitment the focus should be on speed, drastically shortening the period between applicants expressing interest and joining.
To achieve this, Defence will offer novel ways of entry into the Armed Forces that attract more people from a wider range of backgrounds. The Army and Navy are developing short term employment opportunities - “gap year” schemes - for young men and women across a variety of exciting roles that will upskill, provide apprenticeships, and a flavour of life in the Armed Forces.
Full plans will be announced in due course now that we have published the SDR, but we have already introduced several initiatives to improve recruitment including pay increases for new recruits and existing personnel, the scrapping of outdated medical policies, the implementation of a direct-entry cyber pathway and the setting of ambitions to make conditional offers of employment and provisional training start dates in much shorter time. All of these have achieved results; year on year there are now increased applications to the Armed Forces, increased inflow by 19% – including exceeded recruitment targets by the Royal Navy – and at the same time we have reduced outflow by 7%.
Asked by: Sarah Bool (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether financial incentives for service personnel on overseas deployments were considered during the the Strategic Defence Review.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Financial Incentives (FI) are offered by cohort and rank rather than geography of Service. As such there is not a singular FI for those serving overseas, but a number of Service personnel overseas are receiving a FI. Service personnel receive an allowance package to mitigate disadvantage of relocation and differing costs of living. Furthermore, Service personnel living in Service Families Accommodation overseas pay a smaller accommodation fee then those living in the UK. The Strategic Defence Review also explored the importance of pay and measures to improve retention, including recommending the Ministry of Defence prioritise delivering its 'flexible working' initiative, and providing support towards home ownership. Also announced as part of the Review was over £1.5 billion additional funding to fix forces family housing.
As a new Government, we have already improved the childcare offer for those Service personnel which was announced in November 2024.
Asked by: Sarah Bool (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of redress mechanisms for victims of investment fraud.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Protecting the public and businesses from fraud requires a unified and co-ordinated response from government, law enforcement and industry. The Government committed in its manifesto to introduce an expanded Fraud Strategy, and will set out further details in due course.
To better protect consumers from fraud, in October 2024 the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) introduced a mandatory reimbursement requirement for authorised push payment (APP) scams, which may include investment scams, that take place over the Faster Payments System. This regime requires all Payment Service Providers in scope to reimburse victims of APP scams up to the value of £85,000. The PSR has noted that in the first three months of the regime, 86% of money lost to APP scams was returned to victims.
Asked by: Sarah Bool (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Wales Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Autumn Budget 2024 on family farms in Wales.
Answered by Nia Griffith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Wales Office)
The Government is steadfastly committed to family farms in Wales. That is why we protected the farm budget at its current level and allocated £337 million to the Welsh Government at the Autumn Budget.
Furthermore, at the UK-EU Summit on the 19th of May, the Prime Minister announced that the UK would deliver a new agri-food deal with the European Union. This will make agrifood trade with our biggest market cheaper and easier, cut costs and red tape for Welsh producers and retailers, and help keep prices down and increase choice in the shops.
Asked by: Sarah Bool (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what support is available for (a) local heritage and (b) arts organisations in South Northamptonshire constituency.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
In the South Northamptonshire constituency, Arts Council England has provided over £600,000 of funding between 2021-2025.
This includes 11 awards across combined arts, music and theatre, totalling more than £290,000. “The Play’s The Thing” Theatre Company received £39,366 for their biennial ‘Taking the Stage’ symposium, celebrating the role of women in the performing arts.
Arts Council England’s Developing Your Creative Practice has also supported four individual artists with a total of £47,113 across theatre and visual arts. ItsCreative People and Places funding stream has awarded £321,703 per annum to ‘Made with Many’ for 2022-25 – to produce events and activities that put the community at the heart of commissioning artists and producing new and exciting events, through conversations with local people and community decision-making panels.
Since 1994, the National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded more than £18.2m to 95 projects in South Northamptonshire. Examples of organisations and projects they have supported include £11.6m in support of Silverstone Heritage and a grant of £233,800 supporting much needed repairs to the roof of the Grade I listed All Saints' Church, Middleton Cheney.
Since 2020, Historic England provided £56,000 towards re-roofing the Brewhouse at Sulgrave Manor. They also provided financial support for the Peterborough Diocese Places of Worship Support Officer for 10 years up to 2024 and £4,000 for Weedon Lois Castle site.
The Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme provide grants towards VAT paid on repairs and maintenance to the nation's listed places of worship. Since August 2022, a total of £228,640.15 has been awarded to 33 Listed Places of Worship in the South Northamptonshire constituency area.
This year, the Secretary of State also announced a new £270 million Arts Everywhere Fund. This will include support to museums, heritage, arts and music venues across the country and is a critical step that this Government is taking to help create jobs, boost local economies, and expand access to arts, heritage and culture for communities.
Asked by: Sarah Bool (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of large-scale solar farms on (a) agricultural land use and (b) landscape character in South Northamptonshire constituency.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra does not collect information on the potential impacts of constructing green energy infrastructure. However, Defra does produce statistical estimates of agricultural land areas each year from the annual June Survey of Agriculture:
Asked by: Sarah Bool (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure effective coordination between (a) statutory bodies, (b) water companies, (c) HS2 Ltd and (d) local authorities to help reduce disruption when (i) planning and (ii) implementing road closures.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Sections 59 and 60 of the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 places a duty on local highway authorities and statutory undertakers (including water companies) to co-ordinate works in order minimise inconvenience for road users and for safety. This is supported by the Code of Practice for the Co-ordination of Street and Road Works produced by my Department to ensure that, although there will always be some disruption from road and street works, these are minimised. Where road closures are unavoidable as part of construction of HS2, contractors work closely with relevant local highway authorities to minimise disruption to local communities.