Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the reduction in the Rural England Prosperity Fund for 2025/26 on rural businesses.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Department announced on 4 March that it would be providing an additional £33 million for the Rural England Prosperity Fund in financial year 2025-26. This announcement continues funding beyond the lifetime of the original scheme providing new money for new projects in rural areas.
The Autumn Statement on 30 October confirmed Defra’s budgets for 2024-25 and 2025-26. Funding allocations for individual programmes have been determined through the departments business planning exercise. Future funding decisions remain subject to the Government spending review.
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 assessment he has made of the potential impact of a minerals trade deal between the US and Ukraine on the UK’s Critical Minerals Strategy.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
A secure supply of critical minerals is vital for the UK's economic growth and security, Industrial Strategy, and clean energy transition. The Department for Business and Trade will publish a new Critical Minerals Strategy this year that will set out the Government’s refined approach including on international partnerships.
The UK is committed to collaborating with Ukraine on critical minerals through our 100 Year Partnership agreement to support the development of a Ukrainian Critical Minerals Strategy.
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 assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of a minerals trade deal between the US and Ukraine.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
A secure supply of critical minerals is vital for the UK's economic growth and security, Industrial Strategy, and clean energy transition. The Department for Business and Trade will publish a new Critical Minerals Strategy this year that will set out the Government’s refined approach including on international partnerships.
The UK is committed to collaborating with Ukraine on critical minerals through our 100 Year Partnership agreement to support the development of a Ukrainian Critical Minerals Strategy.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of ensuring that all Armed Forces Personnel are entitled to the same pension scheme.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
As of 1 April 2022, all Serving personnel are members of the Armed Forces Pension Scheme 2015 (AFPS 15). AFPS 15 is the only open pension scheme for both Regular and Reserve personnel, having replaced all existing prior legacy schemes.
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, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of Universal Credit provisions for single parent families.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Poverty Taskforce is working to publish a Child Poverty Strategy which will deliver lasting change. The Strategy will look at levers across four key themes of increasing incomes, including considering social security reforms, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience; and better local support especially in the early years.
Benefit rates are reviewed each year, increasing by 6.7% in April 2024 and by a further 1.7% from April 2025, in line with inflation. We have recently announced a Fair Repayment Rate on Universal Credit deductions will be introduced from April 2025, helping approximately 1.2 million households benefit by an average of £420 a year.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
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 the potential merits of (a) further regulating gambling companies and (b) creating a Gambling Ombudsman.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The government is committed to strengthening protections to ensure that people can continue to enjoy gambling, without the risks that can ensue from harmful gambling.
The previous government published its gambling white paper in April 2023. The white paper set out the future of regulation and legislation in the gambling sector. This included a broad package of evidence-led proposals which aim to prevent harm as early as possible, and we have delivered on the introduction of the statutory levy and online slots stake limits. We will continue to monitor the best available evidence in taking decisions on future gambling reform, and the Minister for Gambling will outline further steps in due course, including on the ombudsman.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to make Almshouses eligible for the right to buy scheme.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Almshouses are exempt from the Right to Buy scheme and the government has no plans to alter that fact.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on increasing levels of defence expenditure above 2.5% of GDP.
Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Government is committed to setting a path to spending 2.5% of GDP on defence in Spring. The Ministry of Defence remains closely engaged with His Majesty's Treasury on this matter.
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, how many calls to the Disability Service Centre helpline (a) were not answered, (b) involved the caller being on hold for more than 10 minutes and (c) were terminated by the Disability Service Centre following the caller being on hold for more than 10 minutes in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Part (a)
The table below shows the total number of unanswered calls (Calls Abandoned from Agent Queue) for Disability Services, for each of the last 12 calendar months.
Month Year | Directorate | Calls Abandoned from Agent Queue |
Feb-2024 | Disability Services | 189,821 |
Mar-2024 | Disability Services | 199,623 |
Apr-2024 | Disability Services | 268,374 |
May-2024 | Disability Services | 191,549 |
Jun-2024 | Disability Services | 133,799 |
Jul-2024 | Disability Services | 151,056 |
Aug-2024 | Disability Services | 152,973 |
Sep-2024 | Disability Services | 162,451 |
Oct-2024 | Disability Services | 157,661 |
Nov-2024 | Disability Services | 158,028 |
Dec-2024 | Disability Services | 118,581 |
Jan-2025 | Disability Services | 264,966 |
Part (b) The department does not hold data that enables us to answer this question.
Part (c) The department does not hold data that enables us to answer this question.
There are many reasons why calls to a service line can attract a high call abandonment rate which can include but is not limited to increased hold times. The abandonment of calls is an area that we are unable to fully analyse as there is no data to tell us exactly why a specific customer terminates a call. We are continuously monitoring the service and reviewing our approach to ensure we are able to deliver for our customers.
DISCLAIMER
Please note this information is derived from the Department’s management information, designed solely for the purpose of helping the Department to manage its business. As such, it has not been subjected to the rigorous quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics. As DWP holds the information internally, we have released it. However, it is possible information held by DWP may change due to operational reasons and we recommend that caution be applied when using it.
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, how many calls to the Pension Service helpline (a) were not answered, (b) involved the caller being on hold for more than 10 minutes and (c) were terminated by the Pension Service following the caller being on hold for more than 10 minutes in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Response:
Part (a)
The table below shows the total number of unanswered calls (Calls Abandoned from Agent Queue) for The Pension Service, for each of the last 12 calendar months.
Month Year | Directorate | Calls Abandoned from Agent Queue |
Feb-2024 | Pension Service | 60,495 |
Mar-2024 | Pension Service | 56,400 |
Apr-2024 | Pension Service | 72,485 |
May-2024 | Pension Service | 36,733 |
Jun-2024 | Pension Service | 24,900 |
Jul-2024 | Pension Service | 23,709 |
Aug-2024 | Pension Service | 25,554 |
Sep-2024 | Pension Service | 36,407 |
Oct-2024 | Pension Service | 36,412 |
Nov-2024 | Pension Service | 31,481 |
Dec-2024 | Pension Service | 23,077 |
Jan-2025 | Pension Service | 34,704 |
Part (b) The department does not hold data that enables us to answer this question.
Part (c) The department does not hold data that enables us to answer this question.
There are many reasons why calls to a service line can attract a high call abandonment rate which can include but is not limited to increased hold times. The abandonment of calls is an area that we are unable to fully analyse as there is no data to tell us exactly why a specific customer terminates a call. We are continuously monitoring the service and reviewing our approach to ensure we are able to deliver for our customers.
DISCLAIMER
Please note this information is derived from the Department’s management information, designed solely for the purpose of helping the Department to manage its business. As such, it has not been subjected to the rigorous quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics. As DWP holds the information internally, we have released it. However, it is possible information held by DWP may change due to operational reasons and we recommend that caution be applied when using it.