Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will publish his Department’s assessment of the potential impact of reductions in Overseas Development Assistance on UK-supported initiatives in (a) health system development, (b) girls’ education and (c) disability support in developing countries.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the Equalities Impact Assessment published for the 2025/26 Official Development Assistance programme allocations.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he plans to launch the review into the Disability Confident Scheme.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
My officials and I have been working with a wide range of stakeholders—including disabled people, the Devolved Governments, disability organisations, employers, and sector experts—throughout the summer to explore potential reforms to the Disability Confident Scheme.
This includes considering how to support Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) better, strengthen validation processes, enhance promotion of the scheme, and improve transparency and accountability. These reforms aim to make the scheme more robust while building better support for both employers and disabled people in and out of work.
The Government is working towards announcing next steps for improving the scheme later this autumn
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent discussions he has had with HM Courts and Tribunals Service on addressing the backlog of criminal cases in Wiltshire.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The outstanding caseload in the criminal courts remains one of the biggest challenges facing the Criminal Justice System. Ministers meet regularly with the judiciary and HMCTS to discuss shared priorities, including the criminal courts caseload.
For this financial year (25/26), this Government is funding a record allocation of Crown Court sitting days to deliver swifter justice for victims – 110,000 sitting days this year, 4,000 higher than the last Government funded. We also funded 108,500 sitting days in the Crown Court in the last financial year - the highest level in almost 10 years (since FY15/16). We continue to build capacity in magistrates’ courts, with 14,636 magistrates in post as of April 2025 across England and Wales. This year alone, we are uplifting our programme to bring in 2,000 new and diverse magistrates over the next 12 months and will continue to recruit at high levels in future years – ensuring our benches reflect the communities they serve. We also continue to recruit high levels of legal advisers, securing resilience for years to come.
However, the scale of the challenge is beyond what increasing sitting days can achieve.
This is why the Government asked Sir Brian Leveson to chair an Independent Review of Criminal Courts, to propose once-in-a-generation reform that will improve timeliness in the courts and deliver swifter justice for victims. The first part of the Review now been published. We will carefully consider Sir Brian’s proposals before setting out the Government’s full response in the autumn.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of staff shortages in His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service on delays to criminal trials in Wiltshire.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Staffing allocations are in line with current workload across the courts in Wiltshire, although recruitment can be an issue, particularly in Swindon where the competition in the job market is high. That said, administrative staff at both the Crown Court and magistrates’ courts in Wiltshire are at or near compliment. A shortfall in legal advisers in the magistrates’ courts in Wiltshire has had an impact on trial timeliness. To mitigate the impact of reduced sittings, His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service has implemented a detailed plan to address the position, and a rolling programme to recruit trainee legal advisers to support magistrates’ court capacity is part of this. There is currently legal adviser capacity to sit 54 crime courts per week and this is expected to rise in line with the planning, stabilising at 65 courts per week in 12-months time. In addition, the measures implemented to address the situation will see a dedicated trial blitz in late 2025 and which is supported by inter-agency collaboration.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of court capacity in Wiltshire to meet expected caseloads in the next five years.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This Government inherited record and rising courts backlog. In the criminal courts jurisdiction, we have funded a record-high allocation of 110,000 Crown Court sitting days across England and Wales this financial year to deliver swifter justice for victims, 4,000 more than in 24/25 under the previous Government. However, current national system performance and projected demand in coming years suggest the scale of the challenge is beyond what increasing sitting days can achieve. This is why the Government asked Sir Brian Leveson to chair an Independent Review of Criminal Courts, to propose once-in-a-generation reform that will improve timeliness in the courts and deliver swifter justice for victims. The first part of the Review now been published. We will carefully consider Sir Brian’s proposals before setting out the Government’s full response in the autumn.
In Wiltshire, current Crown Court performance compares favourably with other centres. Between June 2024 and June 2025, new case receipts declined by 3%; and the outstanding caseload reduced by 18%, indicating that we do have the capacity to meet current demand in the Crown court.
In the magistrates’ courts, our open caseloads rose steadily last year, demonstrating that the challenge we face is across the criminal courts structure, not solely in the Crown Court. We continue to recruit high levels of magistrates and legal advisers to secure resilience in the magistrates’ court for years to come.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what consideration his Department has given to investment strategies for (a) Wiltshire and (b) other rural areas which do not fall within the catchment areas of (i) large cities and (ii) mayoral combined authorities.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Office for Investment is aligned with the UK's Industrial Strategy, focusing on growth-driving and foundational sectors. The OfI will actively pursue and manage investment projects that support national growth missions and infrastructure strategies, across the UK and will support rural areas such as Wiltshire. I am delighted that Siemens Mobility is moving ahead with its £100 million investment in a rail infrastructure, digital engineering, and R&D facility after receiving Wiltshire County Council planning permission. Furthermore, German defence technology company, STARK, is opening a 40,000sq ft factory in Swindon, Wiltshire, producing military drones for NATO, creating over 100 skilled jobs.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the Answer of 23 July 2025 to Question 62821 on Manufacturing Industries: Rural Areas, what the evidential basis is for the conclusion that investment in city-based advanced manufacturing zones will produce positive economic spillover effects for rural communities in Wiltshire.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Everywhere will benefit from the Industrial Strategy’s national policy offer – there are clusters of the growth driving sectors across the whole country including in rural areas and our package addresses the biggest constraints to growth highlighted by these businesses.
Our wider Growth Mission supports people and businesses across the country, including those in rural areas, through policies to create the conditions for businesses to invest and employ, and consumers to spend with confidence. This includes interventions in the Small Business Strategy.
We recognise that rural areas offer significant potential for growth and are central to our economy and we are committed to improving the quality of life for people living and working in rural areas.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate her Department has made of the (a) staffing, (b) system, (c) compliance and (d) other costs of (i) implementing and (ii) administering the proposed changes to Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief; and if she will take steps to publish an estimate prior to the reforms taking effect in April 2026.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
I refer to the answer given on 5 September 2025 at UIN 70546 :
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2025-08-29/70546
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department has conducted region-specific modelling of economic spillover effects in (a) Wiltshire and (b) other counties.
Answered by Gareth Thomas
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has not undertaken region-specific modelling of economic spillover effects for (a) Wiltshire or (b) other individual counties. In developing place-based policy, DBT may draw on cross-government evidence—for example, Office for National Statistics publications (e.g., subnational trade flows; UK input–output tables) and Department for Transport scheme appraisals of “wider economic impacts”—but these are not DBT analyses, are method- and scheme-specific, and are not designed to produce county-level spillover estimates. DBT keeps the available evidence under review to inform programmes where appropriate.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what proportion of Official Development Assistance was spent on (a) in-donor refugee costs and (b) overseas (i) poverty reduction, (ii) humanitarian aid and (iii) sustainable development programmes in the last financial year.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK reports its Official Development Assistance (ODA) spend on a calendar year basis in the Statistics on International Development.
Based on the provisional statistics published in April, in 2024, 20 per cent (£2.8 billion) of UK ODA was spent on in-donor refugee costs and 10 per cent (£1.4 billion) of UK ODA was spent on bilateral humanitarian assistance; this does not include humanitarian assistance spend through multilateral organisations.
It is not possible to differentiate between programmes that support poverty reduction and sustainable development.
Final figures for 2024 will be published in Statistics on International Development: Final UK ODA Spend 2024 on 18 September 2025. Provisional figures for 2025 will be published in Spring 2026.