Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress he has made in improving water quality in South Shropshire constituency.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Cleaning up our rivers is a top priority. The Environment Agency’s (EA) Water Industry Regulation Transformation Programme is delivering more inspections and pushing water companies to perform better, and water companies are investing over £11 billion between 2025-2030, to improve nearly 3,000 storm overflows across England and Wales.
In the West Midlands in 2024/25, water companies undertook over 160 actions aimed at improving sewage treatment works (STWs) and storm overflow discharges to improve water quality, and over 100 actions aimed to prevent deterioration of water quality.
In this constituency, 14 improvement schemes were delivered at STWs between 2020–2025, with further improvements at 11 STWs and 57 at storm overflows.
During 2024/25 over 800 compliance inspections were conducted at Severn Trent Water sites, aiming to rise to 1700+ in 2025/26. The EA will attend more minor pollution incidents and continue to attend all serious pollution incidents, not hesitating to take appropriate enforcement action.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of changes to the planned timetable for gigabit rollout on rural areas.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
According to the independent website, Thinkbroadband.com, 89% of premises in the UK already have access to a gigabit-capable broadband connection. The government is still committed to ensuring 99% of premises receive gigabit coverage by 2032.
The funding, committed over the Spending Review covering the period 2026/27 to 2029/30, will support the delivery of all existing Project Gigabit contracts, voucher projects and areas currently in procurement. It reconfirms the government’s confidence in suppliers' ability to deliver the rollout.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to help support Midlands Air Ambulance Charity.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not directly fund air ambulance services on a routine basis. Air ambulances in England operate as independent charities and are supported by the National Health Service through the provision and training of key clinical staff.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to help people to prepare for the digital switchover in rural areas.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government has acted to ensure any risks arising from the industry-led migration of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) are mitigated for all customers. Major communication providers and network operators signed voluntary charters in December 2023 and March 2024. To enhance protections for vulnerable customers, the Government secured new commitments from the telecoms industry in November 2024, including further safeguards set out in the non-voluntary migrations checklist.
One of the safeguards is to ensure that customers that have been identified as vulnerable, are provided with a battery back-up solution that provides over one hour of access to emergency services in the event of a power outage. This includes those who are landline dependent (e.g. because they live in a mobile not-spot). Many providers are going beyond these safeguards, including batteries that last 4-7 hours.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help support small abattoirs.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises the vital role small abattoirs play in supporting local livestock producers and maintaining a resilient and competitive food supply chain.
Defra works closely with industry stakeholders including through the Small Abattoirs Working Group and the Small Abattoirs Task and Finish Group. These groups bring together government and industry representatives on a regular basis and provide a forum for identifying the challenges and opportunities that the sector faces, and for collaborating on practical solutions to support the long-term sustainability of small and medium sized abattoirs.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to help improve farm safety.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the Honourable Member to the previous answer 68659
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to help ensure protections are in place for the provision of (a) sports, (b) physical activity and (b) green spaces in the consideration of planning applications.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The National Planning Policy Framework makes clear that access to high-quality open spaces and opportunities for sport and physical activity is important for the health and well-being of communities.
The Framework includes strong protections for existing open space, sports and recreational buildings and land, including playing fields, setting out that they should not be built on unless they are no longer needed, equivalent or better provision is made, or the development is for alternative sports or recreational provision which offers benefits that clearly outweigh the loss of the current or former use.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to improve services for young people in South Shropshire constituency.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Local authorities play a key part in delivering youth services, reflected in their statutory duty to provide sufficient leisure-time activities and facilities in line with local needs. In 25/26 we are investing £8m in the Local Youth Transformation (LYT) Pilot to support local authorities to rebuild a high-quality offer for young people and transition back to local youth services leadership. Shropshire County Council is one of the 12 local authorities participating in the pilot, and they have been awarded £695,131.
This Government fully recognises the importance of youth services to help young people live safe and healthy lives, and we are committed to giving all young people the chance to reach their full potential. We are co-producing a new National Youth Strategy to set out a new long-term vision for young people and an action plan for delivering this. The National Youth Strategy will be published later this year.