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 he is taking to support conservation projects in churches at risk.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department supports the conservation of historic places of worship, including those at risk, through several channels.
The Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme was extended for a further year in January 2025 to March 2026, with a £23 million budget. This scheme helps religious organisations reclaim the VAT costs of eligible repairs and renovations, which supports the conservation of these vital heritage and community assets.
In exceptional circumstances, listed places of worship may be eligible for Heritage at Risk funding provided by Historic England. In addition, the Department funded the £15 million Heritage At Risk Capital Fund in the 2025/26 financial year. Out of 37 projects awarded funding through this capital fund, 4 were places of worship, receiving a total of £1,387,842 for their conservation projects.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what action is being taken to increase scam awareness in rural communities.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Whilst it is vital we continue to target the criminals behind fraud and make it harder for them to operate, we want to increase awareness across all communities to help people.
We are working with City of London Police (CoLP) to support their coordination of the Fraud Protect Network. The network is made up of local, regional and national law enforcement officers and is designed to reduce the threat of fraud and revictimisation by providing consistent protect messaging and safeguarding advice to the public, including those in rural communities.
Additionally, the Government has continued to fund the national ‘Stop! Think Fraud’ awareness campaign to equip the public with useful protective behaviours against fraud. The campaign, and supporting website, make it easier for the public to recognise fraud and take steps to protect themselves, their family and friends.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of increases in the cost of shotgun licences on funding for youth activities.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
On 5 February 2025, increased fees came into effect to provide full-cost recovery for firearms licensing applications processed by police forces. This was the first increase in fees for 10 years and we intend to undertake more regular reviews in the future.
The need to increase firearms licensing fees to help address shortcomings in firearms licensing was highlighted by the Senior Coroner in his Preventing Future Deaths reports into the fatal shootings in Plymouth in August 2021.
It is important that the additional revenue from firearms licensing fees is used to support improvements in police force firearms licensing teams, and my predecessor, Dame Diana Johnson MP, wrote to all Police and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables to make clear that the increased fees must be used for this purpose.
Whilst the Government’s manifesto commitment referred to the money raised by full cost recovery fees being used to support youth interventions to prevent serious violence, it was decided instead ahead of the February 2025 increase to fees, that firearms fees income must be retained by police forces to support improvements in police firearms licensing.
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 action is being taken to improve food security in South Shropshire constituency and the West Midlands.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Food security is monitored via the UK Food Security Report, produced every three years (most recently December 2024). This gives an international, national, and household food security assessment. Additionally, we will be publishing an annual food security digest report in the years in between.
The UK has a resilient food supply chain and is equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption. Food security is built on supply from diverse sources, strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes. Imports supplements domestic production, helping manage seasonality and ensures that any disruption from risks such as adverse weather or disease does not affect the UK's overall security of supply.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what action is being taken to support SEND transport costs in South Shropshire constituency.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Central government funding for home-to-school travel is provided through the Local Government Finance Settlement which is administered by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The Settlement for the 2025/26 financial year makes available over £69 billion for local government, a 6.8% cash terms increase in Core Spending Power on 2024/25.
To put local government on the road to financial sustainability, the government recently consulted on funding reforms, including a bespoke relative needs formula for home-to-school transport. The consultation response was published here on 20 November:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/the-fair-funding-review-20.
Challenges in the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system are creating pressure on home-to-school travel. We have committed to reform the SEND system to enable more children to thrive in local mainstream settings. These reforms will be set out in a Schools White Paper early in the new year.
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, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of community diagnostic hubs in South Shropshire constituency.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Community diagnostic centres (CDCs) are delivering additional, digitally connected, diagnostic capacity in England, providing patients with a co-ordinated set of tests in the community in as few visits as possible, to enable fast and accurate diagnoses
CDCs help to separate urgent and elective care, providing additional capacity in the community and relieving pressure on hospitals.
As of September 2025, CDCs are now delivering additional tests and checks on 170 sites across the country and have delivered over 9.4 million tests, checks and scans, including large, standard, and hub and spoke models, since July 2024.
The Elective Reform Plan sets out that the Government will deliver additional CDC capacity in 2025/26 by expanding a number of existing CDCs and building up to five new CDCs. The locations of both new and expanded CDC schemes will be confirmed in due course. This is funded as part of the £600 million of capital investment for diagnostics in 2025/26, which my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer set out in the June 2025 statement.
There are no CDCs in the South Shropshire constituency. However, there is a CDC in Telford, the Shropshire CDC. Constituents may also have access to diagnostic services at the Royal Shrewsbury and Robert and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospitals. Diagnostic services are also available in the community hospitals run by the Shrewsbury Community Health NHS Trust in Bridgnorth, Ludlow, and Whitchurch, as well as the health centre in Oswestry.
CDCs, even if not local to a constituent, will add capacity to the wider integrated care system. They, therefore, benefit more than just those patients immediately close to them.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of the use of Non-Disclosure Agreements during corporate restructuring in safety-critical sectors in the context of the Employment Tribunal correction in Unite v MAEL.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government cannot comment on individual cases. In addition, the Government is unable to assess sector-based trends on the use of non-disclosure agreements as they are private contractual agreements and data on their use is not collected.