Sarah Dyke

Government is committed to providing redress to individuals affected by the Horizon scandal as quickly as possible. We continue to seek options to speed up redress, in discussion with the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board. For example, on the Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme we have recently committed to providing offers on fully completed claims within 40 working days in 90% of cases, in line with our commitment on the GLO scheme. As of 30 September 2024, approximately £363 million has been paid to over 2,900 claimants across the available schemes.

Setting a target of March 2025 for every sub-postmaster affected by failures in the Horizon Scandal to receive compensation in full could put pressure on vulnerable postmasters who may need more time to finalise their claim with their legal representatives, or to respond to offers. It could also rule out new potential claimants, who are still coming forward.

Businesses across the country, including those in rural areas, can access support through their local Growth Hubs. DBT is committed to helping rural businesses to boost exports, improve access to finance, stamp out late payment practices and compete for public procurement contracts.

The Government is committed to ensuring justice and financial redress is delivered as swiftly as possible for postmasters affected by the Horizon IT Scandal, whether that is through the redress schemes that are already operating or the new scheme which we intend to launch before the end of this month for those whose convictions have been overturned by the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Act and the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences (Scotland) Act.

The latest published data shows that between April 2022 and March 2023, 90% of premises benefiting from publicly-subsidised broadband rollout, including Project Gigabit, were rural.

Almost £2 billion of contracts have been signed to connect over a million more premises with gigabit-capable broadband. These are premises that would otherwise not be reached by suppliers’ commercial rollout, and fall predominantly in rural areas.

Between 1 January 2024 and 28 November 2024, there have been 6573 successful applications for Capital Grants under the Environmental Land Management Schemes in England in 2024.

The Rural Payment Agency cannot provide constituency data at this time due to the boundary changes earlier this year.

This Government is committed to moving to a circular economy for plastics - a future where we keep our resources in use for longer; waste is reduced; we accelerate the path to net zero; we see investment in critical infrastructure and green jobs; our economy prospers; and nature thrives. As a part of this transition, managing and reducing plastic waste will be crucial.

The Government has not fully assessed the option to ban single-use food service materials for dine-in settings that have more than 20 covers. We continue to review the latest evidence on problematic products and/or materials to take a systematic approach, in line with circular economy principles, to reducing the use of unnecessary single-use plastic products and encouraging reuse solutions.

Refillable and returnable packaging is a key part of supporting the transition to a circular economy. Defra is working with WRAP to identify and analyse measures that could be used to encourage greater use of refillable and returnable packaging.

Delivery of the Rural England Prosperity Fund (REPF) has been devolved to eligible local authorities. This includes assessing and approving project applications, processing payments and day-to-day monitoring. REPF funding is available from April 2023 to March 2025 and all eligible local authorities have confirmed allocations of funding for the two-year period as published.

The latest data we have available for spend is for end of year 1 (March 2024) which showed that £17 million had been paid to projects and in total £71 million had been committed to completed, live or planned projects.

Allocations were weighted 25% year 1 and 75% year 2 for most eligible local authorities to allow development of project pipelines and give time for eligible local authorities to use the full allocations available.

The Autumn Statement on 30 October confirmed Defra’s budgets for 2024-25 and 2025-26. Funding allocations for individual programmes for the next financial year will be determined in upcoming months through the department’s business planning exercise.

The department is working closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and will update on the Rural England Prosperity Fund in due course.

To address the specific barriers disabled EV drivers face when using public chargepoints, the Government co-sponsored the publication of the Publically Available Specification (PAS) 1899:2022 standard, which provides specifications on designing and installing accessible public EV chargepoints and considers chargepoints in the context of their wider built environment.  The Government continues to work with industry and other parties to ensure effective implementation of PAS1899 and to support the 24-month review of the PAS, which is being led by the British Standards Institution (BSI) and concludes early in 2025. The Government will continue to monitor progress to assess whether further intervention is needed on accessibility over time.

Delivering reliable and affordable public transport services for passengers is one of the government’s top priorities as we know how important this is for passengers and for local growth. The government is looking at the future of the £2 fare cap as a matter of urgency and is considering the most appropriate and affordable approach for the future of the scheme.

The Department also published an interim report in September 2023 setting out emerging trends in key outcomes from the first two months of the scheme. The report is available on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-the-2-bus-fare-cap/2-bus-fare-cap-evaluation-interim-report-february-2023.

The Department is undertaking a capital spend portfolio review. The review will consider a number of projects under the former Restoring Your Railway programme.

Improving bus services is a key part of this Government’s growth mission. We are determined to deliver better services, grow passenger numbers and drive opportunity to under-served regions. The Government will empower local transport authorities and reform funding by giving local leaders more control and flexibility over bus funding and allowing them to plan ahead to deliver their local transport priorities. We will work closely with local authorities and mayors to understand what is needed to improve and grow their bus networks by learning from their experiences and building on their successes, and we will announce our future bus funding plans in due course.

The latest published data shows a total of 1,438 hospital beds in Somerset, in quarter four of 2023/24. This compares to a total of 1,374 hospital beds reported by National Health Service trusts in quarter four of 2014/15.

Data on NHS bed numbers is published by NHS England, and is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/bed-availability-and-occupancy/bed-data-overnight/

I know that the loan charge is a very important matter for many members and their constituents. Within my first two weeks in office, I had my first meeting with campaigners to discuss the loan charge. The Chancellor and I have been considering this matter since taking office and will provide an update in due course.

According to consumer website Which?, UK banks and building societies closed over 6000 branches across the UK from January 2015 to May 2024.

The Government recognises the importance of banking to communities and high streets. The Government has therefore committed to work closely with banks to roll out at least 350 banking hubs, which provide individuals and businesses up and down the country with critical cash and banking services.