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, how much money has been spent on improving flood defences in Somerset since 2014.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Since the flooding of 2013/14, over £200 million of Flood and Coastal Risk Management Grant-in-Aid (FCRM GiA) and local levy has been spent on improving the standard of flood protection in the local authority areas of Somerset, North Somerset, and Bath and North East Somerset. This is in addition to the annual budget of over £3 million for the Somerset Rivers Authority and the annual budget the Environment Agency has for repairing existing assets and individual property-level resilience programmes.
Improvements have included dredging, building new flood defences, raising river banks and roads and upgrading existing flood defences. The Environment Agency has also spent additional money on providing a local stock of Ultra High Volume Pumps so they are guaranteed to be available in the event of a major incident.
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, how much maintenance activity has been carried out on Somerset’s Main Rivers in the last a) year, b) 5 years and c) 10 years.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Since the flooding of 2013/14, over £47 million has been spent on operating flood defences and maintaining rivers in Somerset. This includes £4.7 million this financial year and over £24 million in the last five years.
This includes the daily operation and maintenance of hundreds of flood defence assets across the Somerset Levels and Moors and on the coast, the clearing of vegetation from river channels, the management of flood storage reservoirs and the deployment of additional pumps after heavy rainfall. In addition to this, the Environment Agency also provides a flood warning service and incident response 365 days of the year.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps he is taking to reduce carbon emissions from peatland.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
England’s peatlands are our largest terrestrial carbon store. By 2030, we will invest £85 million to restore and manage peatlands. We are committed to restoring approximately 280,000 hectares of peat by 2050.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many injuries were caused due to reindeers in the UK over the past year.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This information is not collected centrally. NHS England does not record hospital admissions specifically caused by reindeer. The closest available data is for admissions with the external cause ‘Bitten or struck by other mammals’. In 2024/25, there were 4,620 such admissions in England. However, this category covers a wide range of animals and is not limited to reindeer. It also does not capture all animal-related injuries such as those coded under ‘Car occupant injured in collision with pedestrian or animal’.
Data on hospital admissions by external cause is published by NHS England and is available at the following link:
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many of the remedial notices handed out by the Food Standards Agency in the last year were given to abattoirs with a throughput of less than 5,000 livestock units per year.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
During the period from 1 November 2024 until 31 October 2025, the Food Standards Agency has served five Remedial Action Notices in three abattoirs with a throughput of less than 5,000 livestock units per year.
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, how much of the Small Abattoir Fund was spent by her Department prior to it's closure in 2024.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Rural Payments Agency have offered agreements for the Smaller Abattoir Fund worth a total of £1,119,347.59.
Smaller Abattoir Fund grants are claimed in arrears and as of 04 November 2025, £593,018.55 has been paid out under the scheme.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many remedial action notices the Food Standards Agency have handed out to abattoirs in England and Wales over the last (a) year, (b) 5 years and (c) 10 years.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The number of Remedial Action Notices (RANs) served in England and Wales are as follows:
Data is not held beyond seven years due to data retention policy.
Before 2022, the reported number of RANs related to the number of breaches which were escalated to a formal notice, which may include more than one breach per RAN. This means that the numbers of RANs served may be less than the figure reported here for five years and seven years of data.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase access to dentistry for vulnerable residents in care homes.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise that certain groups of patients may be vulnerable to oral health problems and may find it difficult to access dental care. Specialised dental services are in place to provide dental treatment in several settings, including care homes, and are commissioned by integrated care boards (ICBs). The frequency of dental checks for those living in care homes will be determined by dentists on an individual basis according to need.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline on oral health in care homes sets out a number of recommendations for care homes to help maintain and improve oral health and ensure timely access to dental treatment for their residents. The Government expects care homes to be following NICE guidance and recommendations in this area.
More generally, we have asked ICBs to commission extra urgent dental appointments to make sure that patients with urgent dental needs can get the treatment they require. ICBs have been making extra appointments available from April 2025.
The appointments are available to National Health Service patients experiencing painful oral health issues, such as infections, abscesses, or cracked or broken teeth. Appointments will be available across the country, with specific expectations for each region. These appointments are more heavily weighted towards those areas where they are needed the most.
We are working with NHS England, the NHS Business Services Authority, and ICBs to set out the requirements for monitoring and reporting progress against these urgent appointments which will enable us to identify where further support is needed. These urgent appointments are available to those living in care homes.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions she has had with the Financial Conduct Authority on ensuring that people with disabilities and without access to mobile phones are not excluded from accessing online quotations and other financial services that require a mobile phone number.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government works closely with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the independent regulator of the UK’s financial services sector, to ensure that all customers get the right support with their financial products and services.
FCA guidance highlights the actions firms should take to understand the needs of customers who may be vulnerable, such as individuals with a disability, and to consider these needs appropriately. Specifically, the guidance sets out that firms should offer multiple channels of communication to their customers where possible and should ensure these meet the needs of their customers, including individuals with characteristics of vulnerability.
The FCA also introduced the Consumer Duty in July 2023 which raises the standard of care expected from firms for all customers, including those who may be vulnerable. It aims to deliver products and services that offer fair value and are designed to meet customers’ needs and seeks to increase firms’ focus on delivering good outcomes and preventing harm.
In addition, under the Equality Act 2010, all service providers must make reasonable adjustments to ensure their services are accessible to all.
More widely, ensuring all individuals have access to the appropriate financial products and services they need is a key priority for Government. I published the Government’s Financial Inclusion Strategy on 5th November, which was developed alongside a Committee of consumer and industry representatives, including the FCA, and sets out a range of interventions to improve financial inclusion for underserved groups across the UK. This includes a focus on the issues of digital inclusion and access to banking, and considers accessibility as a key theme throughout, in recognition of the particular challenges individuals can face in relation to this.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many veterinary students are currently enrolled in veterinary public health courses in the UK.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) is responsible for collecting and publishing data on the UK higher education (HE) sector. These data are shared with the department and include a wide range of information on student courses.
In the 2023/24 academic year, across all levels and modes of study, there were 12,880 student enrolments in the subject area ‘Veterinary sciences’ across all UK HE providers. The following table presents numbers of HE students by subject area and sex for each academic year from 2019/20 to 2023/24: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/sb271/figure-13.