Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to support Demand Responsive Transport.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The government believes demand responsive transport (DRT) has an important role to play in ensuring communities can access transport services in areas where more traditional, regular stopping services may not be viable.
The government introduced the Bus Services (No.2) Bill on 17 December. The Bill puts the power over local bus services back in the hands of local leaders right across England and is intended to ensure bus services reflect the needs of the communities that rely on them.
We have allocated over £955 million to help support and improve bus services in 2025/26, including £712 million for local transport authorities (LTAs). LTAs can use funding to introduce DRT services in their areas where they believe it is appropriate to do so and will improve service provision.
The Department is supporting DRT trials, funded through the Rural Mobility Fund, and is monitoring their impact. The results of this work will help inform future DRT schemes that local authorities might want to pursue.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has received a response from the DVLA to the Fatal Accident Inquiry into the death of Xander Irvine.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency has responded to the Determination following the Fatal Accident Inquiry into the death of Xander Irvine. This response can be viewed in full at www.scotcourts.gov.uk/fatal-accident-inquiries/fatal-accident-inquiries-and-determinations/fai-alexander-irvine-response/.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has made an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the report entitled The cycling opportunity by Sustrans, published in September 2024.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department welcomes the findings of this research and will consider its recommendations carefully as we develop our future plans for active travel.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an estimate of the Barnett consequential funding for Scotland associated with investment in filling potholes in England's roads and footpaths.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Block Grant Transparency publication breaks down all changes in the devolved governments’ block grant funding from the 2015 Spending Review up to and including Main Estimates 2023-24. The most recent report was published in July 2023 and the next report will be published in due course.
Barnett-based funding is not ringfenced for any one policy area and it is for the Scottish Government to allocate this funding in devolved areas as they see fit. They can therefore take their own decisions on managing and investing available resources, reflecting their own priorities and local circumstances, and they are accountable to the Scottish Parliament for these decisions.
The Scottish Government’s budget is growing in real terms in 2025-26 and its settlement for 2025-26 is the largest settlement in real terms of any Scottish Government settlement since devolution. The Scottish Government is receiving at least 20% more per person than equivalent UK Government spending in the rest of the UK. That translates into over £8.5 billion more in 2025-26.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, whether he has made an assessment of the effectiveness of the Edinburgh City Region Deal.
Answered by Ian Murray - Secretary of State for Scotland
The Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal is an exemplar of strength in both delivery and impact, and provides the greatest return on investment of any city region or growth deal in Scotland.
The Deal has thus far delivered £2.2 billion pounds of gross value add to the Scottish and UK economy, from £600 million of Government Investment. The Deal is exceeding targets at every turn, with over 336,000 skills improvements engagements delivered through the award winning Integrated Regional Employability and Skills programme, and £200m of research funding secured for the Data Driven Innovation programme. It has also supported ongoing positive collaboration between six local authorities across the region.
I am confident this Deal will continue to build on its own successes to deliver a more prosperous region and UK.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when she plans to publish the research her Department commissioned from London Economics on large scale commercial prize draws.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Department is still considering the findings of the independent research, which looked at the size and nature of the prize draw market, as well as possible gambling harm associated with these products. This research is informing our policy considerations, as whilst not regulated as a gambling product under the Gambling Act, we want people who participate in large scale commercial prize draws to be confident that proportionate protections are in place. We will update Parliament further in due course.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to support (a) small and (b) large family owned businesses.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
At Autumn Budget, we published our Corporate Tax Roadmap, in which we are capping corporation tax at 25% as well as maintaining Small Profit Rate + marginal relief at their current rate + threshold, and maintaining the Annual Investment Allowance at £1m. As a result of commitments in the Corporate Tax Roadmap, 9 in 10 actively trading companies will have a Corporation Tax rate lower than 25%.
The Government protected the smallest businesses from the impact of the increase to Employer National Insurance by more than doubling the Employment Allowance to £10,500. The Government is also making sure family businesses will receive a very significant level of relief once changes to business property relief have been made, with the first £1 million of business assets continuing to receive 100% relief and then 50% thereafter.
Despite the difficult fiscal inheritance, we have also been able to protect key business support programmes that can be accessed by all small and large family businesses, like the England-wide network of Growth Hubs. We are also allocating £250 million in 2025/26 for small business loans programmes, including Start Up Loans and the Growth Guarantee Scheme.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether robotics will have a role in a future industrial strategy.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Industrial Strategy Green Paper identified eight growth-driving sectors. All sectors can shape and will benefit from policy reform through the Industrial Strategy’s cross-cutting policies alongside the broader Growth Mission. This will create the pro-business environment for all businesses to invest and employ, with growth that supports high-quality jobs and ensures that the benefits are shared across people, places, and generations.
Advanced production machinery and robotics are central to increasing productivity across the manufacturing sector. The Made Smarter Adoption Programme is helping SME manufacturers adopt industrial digital technologies such as robotics and autonomous systems to increase their productivity and efficiency.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she had discussions with Cabinet colleagues on the potential impact of VAT on Steiner School kindergartens.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government ran a technical consultation on the VAT policy for seven weeks from 29 July to 15 September. During the consultation period, my officials and I also held a series of meetings with stakeholders to complement written responses. This included written submissions from Steiner Schools.
Following that consultation the Government made changes to the treatment of nursery classes, so that those attached to private schools will continue to be exempt from VAT as long as they are wholly (or almost wholly), rather than completely, composed of children under compulsory school age who wouldn’t be expected to turn compulsory school age that year.
Classes where the vast majority of children are below compulsory school age will remain exempt from VAT. Where mixed classes have a high proportion of children over compulsory school age the Government believes it is fair to treat these classes the same way entire classes of children over compulsory school age are treated. This means that classes like “kindergarten classes” in Steiner schools will be within scope of this policy.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his trade strategy will support the aims of the Fairtrade movement.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The UK Government is committed to advancing free and fair trade around that world that is inclusive, sustainable and reduces poverty.
We remain committed to engaging civil society as we develop the new Trade Strategy.