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 has taken to increase export opportunities for UK farmers and food producers.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government will always seek new opportunities to grow the UK’s world class agri-food and drinks sector. We are working to agree a Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement with the European Union to make agrifood trade with our biggest market cheaper and easier, cutting costs and red tape for British producers and retailers.
Our network of sixteen agri-food and drink attachés work to resolve export barriers around the world. Last year we resolved an export barrier nearly every week, including securing access to the US market for UK beetroot growers and resuming pork exports to China for major UK producers, which industry estimates are worth £80 million. We are committed to working in partnership with food and drink manufacturers to continue to capitalise on strong demand for UK produce around the world.
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 improve the long-term viability of local authority-owned leisure centres.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government recognises the importance of ensuring public access to leisure facilities which are vital spaces for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy, and which play an important role within communities.
The ongoing responsibility of providing access to public leisure facilities lies at local authority level with funding levels set by MHCLG as part of the Local Government Finance Settlement.
The Government encourages local authorities to make investments which offer the right opportunities and facilities for the communities they serve, investing in sport and physical activity with a place-based approach, to meet the needs of individual communities.
Future funding of community sports facilities will be considered as part of the forthcoming Spending Review.
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 he is taking to improve mobile reliability in rural areas.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
4G geographic coverage from at least one mobile network operator (MNO) has now reached over 95% of the UK landmass, but our ambition is for all populated areas of the UK to benefit from high quality, reliable, 5G standalone coverage by 2030; this includes rural areas.
We continue to work closely with the MNOs and are committed to ensuring we have the right policy and regulatory framework in place to support investment into mobile networks and competition in the market, while Ofcom’s improved online coverage checker, which will go live in the second half of June, will help consumers identify the MNOs with the best coverage in their area.
We are also collaborating with Ofcom to carry out further analysis on mobile network resilience, following a consultation that invited input from the industry and the public on power backup provision.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to help increase active travel options in rural areas.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport recently announced almost £300 million of funding to boost active travel across England. This includes £222.5 million to local authorities outside of London, including rural areas. Active Travel England (ATE) supports local authorities through officer training to enable delivery of high-quality walking and cycling schemes, as well as design workshops and design assurance reviews of schemes under development.
ATE is developing specific guidance for good practice application in rural areas and expects to publish this shortly. Officers in ATE and the Department regularly engage with colleagues in DEFRA about how best to harmonise the government’s approach to enabling sustainable and active transport in rural areas.
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 he is taking to improve the retention and recruitment of dentists in rural areas.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are aware of the challenges faced in accessing a dentist, particularly in rural and coastal areas. The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term, we will reform the dental contract with the sector, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.
The additional 700,000 urgent dental appointments are being made available across the country, with specific expectations for each region. These targets are more heavily weighted towards those areas where they are needed the most.
Integrated care boards have also started to advertise posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see up to 240 dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years. As of 10 April 2025, in England, there are 53 dentists in post with a further 44 dentists who have been recruited but are yet to start in post under this scheme. Another 256 posts are currently advertised.
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 she has taken to increase awareness of the availability of Pension Credit in rural areas.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government wants all pensioners to get the support to which they are rightly entitled. That is why we ran the biggest ever Pension Credit take-up campaign across the whole of Great Britain. This included adverts on television; radio (including Greatest Hits Radio Black Country & Shropshire, Hits Radio Black Country & Shropshire, Classic FM Midlands, Smooth Radio); social media; on YouTube; on advertising screens in Pharmacies, Post Offices and leisure centres. The campaign also featured on train advertising panels as well as in national and regional press (including the Shropshire Star).
As part of the campaign, the Department engaged with all councils in Great Britain, through the regular Local Authority Welfare Direct bulletins. Shropshire Council supported the Pension Credit campaign during our ‘Week of Action’ in September 2024, and on social media.
More recently, around 11 million pensioners will have received a leaflet promoting Pension Credit along with their State Pension uprating letter.
Further campaign and promotional activity is planned for this year.
The latest Pension Credit applications and awards statistics were published on 27 February and are available at: Pension Credit applications and awards: February 2025 - GOV.UK(opens in a new tab). The statistics show that the Department made almost 50,000 extra awards on the comparable period in 2023/24.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will reduce the cost of the Veterans Railcard.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We are not planning to reduce the price of the Veterans’ Railcard. Any long-term changes or concessions made to rail fares policy will require balancing against the potential impacts on passengers, taxpayers and the railway.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether funding will be allocated to roll out hotspot policing in rural areas.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government has awarded £66.3m in 2025/26 to all 43 Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) in England and Wales for the Hot Spot Action Fund. This funding is for high-visibility patrolling in the areas with the highest densities (‘hotspots’) of knife crime and anti-social behaviour, as well as problem-oriented policing to tackle the longer-term drivers of crime.
This funding can be used to roll-out hotspot policing in rural areas if the area has a high density of knife crime and anti-social behaviour relative to the force area. Where funding is specifically targeted is an operational decision for individual PCCs and police forces. West Mercia Police (which includes South Shropshire) has been awarded £1m from this fund in 2025/26.
We are also providing over £800,000 in 25/26 for the National Rural Crime Unit and National Wildlife Crime Unit. This funding will support police forces to tackle rural and wildlife crimes, including organised theft and disrupting serious and organised crime groups.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to support the sustainability of bus services in rural areas.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The government introduced the Bus Services (No.2) Bill on 17 December as part of its ambitious plan for bus reform. The Bill puts the power over local bus services back in the hands of local leaders and is intended to ensure bus services reflect the needs of the communities that rely on them right across England, including in rural areas. The government has committed to increasing accountability by including a measure on socially necessary services so that local authorities and bus operators have to have regard for alternatives to changing or cancelling services.
In addition, the government has confirmed £955 million for the 2025 to 2026 financial year to support and improve bus services in England outside London. This includes £243 million for bus operators and £712 million allocated to local authorities across the country, of which Shropshire Council has been allocated over £4.4 million. Local authorities can use this funding to introduce new bus routes, make services more frequent and protect crucial bus routes for local communities.
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 he has taken to support access to orthopaedic care for veterans.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Veterans with an orthopaedic condition related to their time in service can ask their general practitioner to refer them to Op RESTORE. Op RESTORE is an integrated physical health and wellbeing service, and works to ensure that veterans are seen in the right clinical pathway by the right clinician. Op RESTORE works in collaboration with many military charities to provide veterans with wellbeing support to ensure they ‘wait well’ for treatment.
The Government recognises that some veterans may not wish to use bespoke services for veterans, and in some cases orthopaedic conditions may occur that are not attributable to their time in service. In these instances, veterans are able to access the full range of mainstream orthopaedic services commissioned by their local National Health Service integrated care board. As well as local NHS hospitals, this includes local arrangements with the independent sector and supporting services, such as diagnostics and physiotherapy provided by musculoskeletal services, to ensure care is provided as close to the veteran’s home as possible.