Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help increase skills in the agriculture, food and farming sectors.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government’s skills white paper sets out our ambition for an employer focussed skills employment system. This means equipping individuals with life and work skills, while ensuring businesses also invest in developing the current future workforce. The Farming Roadmap will set out how farming can evolve in response to changing markets, technologies, and environmental pressures, and how the Government will support this transition.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when applications will open for the second round of Best Start breakfast clubs.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The government is committed to deliver on its pledge to provide a free breakfast club in every state-funded school with primary-aged children. This will ensure every child, regardless of circumstance, has a supportive start to the school day.
So far, we have delivered 2.6 million breakfasts and offered places to almost 180,000 pupils across the country. Following the success of the early adopters, we will start the first phase of national rollout of the clubs from April 2026. We are investing a further £80 million into the programme to fund approximately 2,000 additional schools between April 2026 and March 2027. This will benefit around 500,000 more children.
Further information, including specifics on eligibility, funding and expectations for schools will be provided later in the autumn term. This will include detailed guidance as well as a wider package of support.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people claimed (a) Statutory Maternity Leave, (b) Statutory Paternity Leave and (c) Statutory Parental Leave by income decile in the 2024/25 financial year.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Numbers of individuals in receipt of statutory payments, including breakdowns by income decile, are published here:
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what data his Department holds on (a) the number of claimants and (b) the total value of payments of (i) Statutory Maternity Leave, (ii) Statutory Paternity Leave, and (iii) Shared Parental Leave by occupation for each of the last three years.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Information provided by employers to HMRC shows that the total value of payments made to individuals in receipt of Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP) and Statutory Shared Parental Pay (SShPP) for 2024/25, the latest year for which full year data is available.
The table below presents a breakdown of the value of payments made to individuals by the region, based on recipient residence.
Table 1. Total value of Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP) and Statutory Shared Parental Pay (SShPP) payments by claimant resident region, 2024/25
Government Office Region | Total value of SMP payments | Total value of SPP payments | Total value of SShPP payments |
East Midlands | £213,500,000 | £5,200,000 | £2,900,000 |
East of England | £328,100,000 | £6,800,000 | £3,900,000 |
London | £631,800,000 | £11,100,000 | £8,000,000 |
North East | £109,100,000 | £2,600,000 | £1,800,000 |
North West | £350,100,000 | £8,000,000 | £4,900,000 |
Northern Ireland | £104,500,000 | £2,200,000 | £1,300,000 |
Scotland | £234,300,000 | £5,500,000 | £1,800,000 |
South East | £481,200,000 | £9,900,000 | £7,600,000 |
South West | £245,900,000 | £5,600,000 | £5,200,000 |
Wales | £132,100,000 | £3,100,000 | £2,000,000 |
West Midlands | £267,700,000 | £6,600,000 | £3,000,000 |
Yorkshire and The Humber | £242,900,000 | £5,900,000 | £3,800,000 |
Unknown | £249,600,000 | £4,700,000 | £3,300,000 |
Total | £3,590,800,000 | £77,200,000 | £49,500,000 |
Source: HM Revenue and Customers (HMRC) Real Time Information (RTI) system 2024/25
Notes:
1. All figures are based on HMRC RTI system and were extracted in Aug 2025. RTI is subject to revision and there may be small fluctuations in figures reported - these figures should not be considered “final”.
2. Figures for the total value of parental payments (£m) are rounded to the nearest hundred thousand.
3. Government Office Regions (GOR) are determined by matching the most recent postcode from the previous tax year with the Office for National Statistics’ postcode lookup table. If a partial postcode is provided an assumption is made based on the postcode district or area. The GOR with the most postcodes of a given district is returned. If no postcode is listed then region is marked as unknown.
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) does not hold data on the number of individuals in receipt or the value of payments of SMP, SPP and SShPP by occupation. However, the Government commissioned the Parental Rights Survey which provides the best source of data on the occupation of parents who have taken parental leave, the findings are published here - https://www.employment-studies.co.uk/resource/parental-rights-survey-2019 .
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what the value was of (a) Statutory Maternity Leave, (b) Statutory Paternity Leave and (c) Statutory Parental Leave in each region in the 2024/25 financial year.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Information provided by employers to HMRC shows that the total value of payments made to individuals in receipt of Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP) and Statutory Shared Parental Pay (SShPP) for 2024/25, the latest year for which full year data is available.
The table below presents a breakdown of the value of payments made to individuals by the region, based on recipient residence.
Table 1. Total value of Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP) and Statutory Shared Parental Pay (SShPP) payments by claimant resident region, 2024/25
Government Office Region | Total value of SMP payments | Total value of SPP payments | Total value of SShPP payments |
East Midlands | £213,500,000 | £5,200,000 | £2,900,000 |
East of England | £328,100,000 | £6,800,000 | £3,900,000 |
London | £631,800,000 | £11,100,000 | £8,000,000 |
North East | £109,100,000 | £2,600,000 | £1,800,000 |
North West | £350,100,000 | £8,000,000 | £4,900,000 |
Northern Ireland | £104,500,000 | £2,200,000 | £1,300,000 |
Scotland | £234,300,000 | £5,500,000 | £1,800,000 |
South East | £481,200,000 | £9,900,000 | £7,600,000 |
South West | £245,900,000 | £5,600,000 | £5,200,000 |
Wales | £132,100,000 | £3,100,000 | £2,000,000 |
West Midlands | £267,700,000 | £6,600,000 | £3,000,000 |
Yorkshire and The Humber | £242,900,000 | £5,900,000 | £3,800,000 |
Unknown | £249,600,000 | £4,700,000 | £3,300,000 |
Total | £3,590,800,000 | £77,200,000 | £49,500,000 |
Source: HM Revenue and Customers (HMRC) Real Time Information (RTI) system 2024/25
Notes:
1. All figures are based on HMRC RTI system and were extracted in Aug 2025. RTI is subject to revision and there may be small fluctuations in figures reported - these figures should not be considered “final”.
2. Figures for the total value of parental payments (£m) are rounded to the nearest hundred thousand.
3. Government Office Regions (GOR) are determined by matching the most recent postcode from the previous tax year with the Office for National Statistics’ postcode lookup table. If a partial postcode is provided an assumption is made based on the postcode district or area. The GOR with the most postcodes of a given district is returned. If no postcode is listed then region is marked as unknown.
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) does not hold data on the number of individuals in receipt or the value of payments of SMP, SPP and SShPP by occupation. However, the Government commissioned the Parental Rights Survey which provides the best source of data on the occupation of parents who have taken parental leave, the findings are published here - https://www.employment-studies.co.uk/resource/parental-rights-survey-2019 .
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the capacity of the digital waste tracking service to tackle waste crime.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Waste handled illegally and poor performing waste sites can damage the environment, blight local communities, for example by causing odour and pest issues, undermine legitimate businesses, and is estimated to cost the UK economy one billion pounds per year.
Digital waste tracking will connect fragmented systems, providing comprehensive near real time data on the movement of a load of waste from production to disposal. Digitising record keeping will give clearer oversight for regulators, making it easier for waste producers and legitimate waste companies to comply with reporting requirements; and harder for rogue operators to compete in the industry and commit waste crime, from fly tipping to illegal waste sites to illegal waste exports.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans her Department has for mandating digital waste tracking for (a) facilities with an environmental permit from 2026 and (b) for other operators from 2027.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
From October 2026, there will be mandatory requirements on permitted or licensed operators, installations and mobile plant that receive waste to create a digital record of waste they receive, and to then enter it onto the Digital Waste Tracking Service.
The waste industry involves a large number and complex array of operators. Subject to funding, additional aspects will be added to the service from 2027, drawing from our testing arising from Phase 1 of the service when it becomes available from April 2026. This will allow us to adjust as we move towards a more complete end-to-end waste tracking service.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her Department's policy paper entitled Resources and waste strategy for England, published on 18 December 2018, what her planned timetable is for implementing reforms to the carriers', brokers' and dealers' regime.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Resources and Waste Strategy for England was published under the previous Government. This Government has published a policy paper on gov.uk setting out its plans for reform of the waste Carrier Broker Dealer regime in England https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reforming-the-waste-carrier-broker-and-dealer-system.
Work has begun to draft the necessary legislative amendments and will be progressed when parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle organised crime in the waste sector.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is committed to tackling waste crime from the fly-tippers who blight our towns and villages to the serious and organised crime groups who are exploiting the waste sector.
We have increased the Environment Agency’s budget for waste crime enforcement by over 50% this year to £15.6 million. We are making policy and regulatory reforms to close loopholes exploited by criminals - fundamentally reforming the waste carriers, brokers and dealers system, tightening waste permit exemptions and introducing digital waste tracking. The Environment Agency hosted Joint Unit for Waste Crime has nearly doubled in size thanks to our extra funding and its UK-wide partnership work with the Environment Agency, HMRC, National Crime Agency, the police and others continues to share intelligence, powers and resources to disrupt waste criminals. HMRC has also consulted on making mandatory tax checks required for waste sector operators to combat hidden economy activity. In addition, the Environment Agency’s Economic Crime Unit was launched in 2024 and targets the financial motivations behind waste crime using asset freezes and proceeds of crime actions.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
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 has allocated funding to expand the digital waste tracking service beyond sites holding an environmental permit.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
From October 2026, there will be mandatory requirements on permitted or licensed operators, installations and mobile plant that receive waste to create a digital record of waste they receive, and to then enter it onto the Digital Waste Tracking Service.
We recognise that waste can also be received under authorisations that are issued by regulators to ensure compliance, other than licenses or permits, such as registered exemptions. We will consider over the next few months whether there are any specific sectors or categories of operation within this group that can be sensibly included in mandatory requirements to create a digital record and enter it onto the Digital Waste Tracking Service alongside permitted and licenced operators.