Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make a comparative assessment of transport expenditure per capital in the South West with other English regions in each of the last five financial years.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of whether the £92 million allocated for the Places of Worship Renewal Fund is sufficient to meet the total cost of repairs for listed places of worship.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Given the current fiscal climate, it is essential that Government support is targeted towards the areas where it can have the greatest impact, and where it is needed most. The new Places of Worship Renewal Fund (£92 million over four years) will provide grants from £10,000 to £1,000,000 to support urgent structural repairs, physical access improvements or the installation of new facilities to expand community use. Priority will be given to projects in areas of England with the highest levels of deprivation and need for investment.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, a) whether listed places of worship will be able to reclaim VAT on essential repairs under the new Places of Worship Renewal Fund and b) when she will publish the finalised details of the fund.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The new Places of Worship Renewal Fund (PWRF) is a capital grant scheme. Where capital grants have been awarded, VAT on eligible works and costs will be rebated where it is not otherwise reclaimable.
The PWRF is open for Expressions of Interest, and further details, including the PWRF criteria and application guidance, are published on the dedicated Historic England webpage: https://historicengland.org.uk/advice/grants/what-we-fund/places-of-worship-renewal-fund/.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data her department holds on the number of pupils with an EHCP in Glastonbury and Somerton, who had a special school as their first preference and were subsequently allocated a place in a mainstream setting.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Placements at special schools are usually made through education, health and care (EHC) plans. The department does not hold figures on whether a mainstream setting named on an EHC plan was the setting preferred by the parents of the child.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the impact the change in VAT status has had on private schools.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
HM Treasury’s Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) provides a comprehensive assessment of the impacts of the removal of the VAT exemption on private schools. The TIIN is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-on-private-school-fees/applying-vat-to-private-school-fees#who-is-likely-to-be-affected.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what modelling her Department has undertaken on the contribution of badger vaccination to achieving Officially Tuberculosis Free status in England by 2038.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Several modelling studies published by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) predict that badger vaccination will significantly reduce TB in badger populations, reducing onward risks to cattle. Further modelling work is ongoing to investigate this further.
The co-design steering group, in its recently published recommended bovine TB strategy, concludes that with most of the High-Risk Area having received at least four years of culling, a transition to vaccination should be beneficial to TB control, particularly when targeted to areas where it can have the greatest impact.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department plans to expand circumstances in which private veterinary surgeons are permitted to use more sensitive bovine tuberculosis testing technologies in commercial settings.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Statutory tuberculin skin testing (SICCT) and interferon-gamma blood testing (IFNy) of cattle herds will remain the foundation of bovine tuberculosis (TB) control and will continue to be required. The recently published co-designed bovine TB Control Strategy for England also proposes facilitating greater access to privately-funded ancillary bovine TB testing alongside this, to support earlier detection of infected cattle and disease management.
Government will now consider the recommendations in the new bovine TB strategy, including on testing.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the badger vaccination programme on the incidence of bovine tuberculosis in cattle herds.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Multiple published studies indicate that badger vaccination is safe and can reduce TB infection and transmission in badgers. Vaccination is now being deployed across a number of large areas, including through a newly contracted Badger Vaccination Field Force. This expanded programme will provide further opportunities to assess and add to the body of evidence about the impact of vaccination on reducing TB incidence in cattle, where important evidence gaps remain.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department plans to issue any further badger control licences under the current or any successor cull policy; and if she will make a statement on the timetable for the cessation of badger culling in England.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There are currently no plans to issue further badger control licences. The government has committed to ending the badger cull by the end of this Parliament, and the 2025 culling season marked the final year of industry-led culling in England’s High Risk and Edge Areas.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will undertake a review of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellations and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 in relation to the requirement for retailers to refund delivery charges for goods returned within the 14-day cancellation period.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The department currently has no plans to undertake a review of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellations and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 (CCRs) as we believe that the current rules balance the interests of businesses and consumers.
The CCRs provide for a 14 working day cooling-off period for distance and off-premises contracts. If a consumer changes their mind and cancels an order within the “cooling off” period, then the trader is not obligated to pay for postage, so long as they have clearly stipulated that the consumer must may for postage ahead of the transaction.
If the goods are faulty, then the trader is obligated to cover the costs of returning the goods, under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.