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 she is taking to support the visitor economy in South Shropshire constituency.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Tourism contributes to growth and jobs across all parts of the country particularly in rural constituencies like South Shropshire, home to historical sites such as Ludlow castle and the diverse landscapes of the Shropshire Hills.
DCMS works with VisitBritain and VisitEngland to champion visits to the British countryside to a worldwide audience with the aim of ensuring that the economic benefits of tourism are felt by all regions and nations.
The Telford and Shropshire Local Visitor Economy Partnerships (LVEPs) has an important role to play in supporting the development of local tourism products and packages that meet the needs of visitors and benefit local communities to the area.
The Government is committed to supporting the sector through the forthcoming Visitor Economy Growth Plan, which will set out a long term plan to increase visitor flows across the UK, boost value, and deliver sustainable growth.
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 discussions he has had with the Royal Mail on tackling postal delays in rural communities.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Ministers and officials have discussions with Royal Mail on a regular basis in its capacity as the universal service provider to ensure that service standards are upheld across all regions, including rural areas.
It is for Ofcom, as the independent regulator of postal services, to monitor Royal Mail’s service standards. The regulator sets Royal Mail enforceable targets to deliver a certain proportion of items on time each year. Ofcom takes compliance with its regulatory targets seriously and this involves conducting thorough investigations where failures have been identified.
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, when he expects the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency early access service for innovative technologies to open.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In July of this year the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency published a statement of policy intent for the development and implementation of an Early Access Service for innovative medical devices, which is available at the following link:
The service aims to speed up safe access to innovative medical devices for patients, supporting the Government’s Life Sciences Sector Plan. The statement set out our intention to work with stakeholders across the life science ecosystem to further develop the policy and to build the internal capability required to deliver the service throughout 2025. Further information on our plans will be provided in early 2026.
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 ability of police forces to implement the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee set out commitments for police forces to implement by July 2025. Forces are now delivering on the Guarantee across England and Wales to ensure consistent and high-quality neighbourhood policing. Every neighbourhood now has named, contactable officers.
Additionally, the Government has made £200 million available in FY 25/26 to support the first steps of delivering 13,000 more neighbourhood policing personnel across England and Wales by the end of this Parliament, including up to 3000 additional neighbourhood officers by March 2026
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 his Department is taking to help support women affected by increases in State Pension age in South Shropshire constituency.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government believes the best way to support women who will be affected by the rise in State Pension Age is to help them to retrain, return to or progress in work.
DWP currently offers employment support for eligible women of all ages, through the network of Jobcentres across the UK, and through contracted employment programmes. A dedicated offer for older customers seeks to provide tailored support for those affected by low confidence, health and disability or caring pressures, and out of date skills or qualifications.
Through initiatives like Midlife MOT reviews, delivered in Jobcentres across the UK, and online, we support older women to assess their health, finances and skills to support effective later life planning. As part of the Plan to Make Work Pay, the Government is also committed to supporting women experiencing menopause to stay in work.
In South Shropshire, Employer and Partnership Teams in Jobcentres work with a range of employers and partners to enhance the skills and employment support available locally for customers including women.
The Government is reforming employment support to ensure it helps everyone who needs it, including women affected by the increase in State Pension age. By bringing together Jobcentre Plus with the National Careers Service in England, there is an opportunity to create a greater awareness and focus on skills and careers as well as better join-up between employability and careers provision.
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.