Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many animals were (a) slaughtered for food consumption and (b) then tested for the presence of lead in (i) 2019, (ii) 2020, (iii) 2021, (iv) 2022, (v) 2023 and (vi) 2024.

Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

A summary of the number of animals slaughtered for food consumption and number of animals tested for lead can be found in the table on the following page.

For information, the majority of these data are available through the Defra Food and Farming statistics and the VMD also publishes the results of annual residues monitoring on an annual basis on GOV.UK.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what he has made of the potential merits of using pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy for people with cystic fibrosis.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) develops authoritative, evidence-based guidance for the National Health Service on best practice, based on an assessment of clinical and cost effectiveness. The NICE’s guideline on the diagnosis and management of cystic fibrosis recommends pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy as a treatment option for exocrine pancreatic insufficiency in patients with cystic fibrosis. The guideline is available at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng78

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of increasing (a) digitalisation and (b) automation in the provision of welfare services.

Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has already implemented many automation initiatives and remains dedicated to identifying future opportunities for further enhancements. To date, 58 automations have been deployed across the DWP, with 38 of them currently active. These automation processes have handled a total of 44.46 million claims and saved 3.4 million staff hours.

We will continue to explore additional automation and digitisation prospects which will help reduce operating costs, enabling agents to dedicate more time to citizens, and expedite claims processing where possible.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what her planned timetable is for making the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper accessible for persons with disabilities online.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Further accessible formats will be published on GOV.UK in due course. The consultation will close 12 weeks after the point at which all accessible versions of this Green Paper are available.

We have published this paper ahead of all accessible versions to put detailed information about the matters subject to consultation in the public domain at the earliest opportunity, although the production of accessible versions requires additional time. The consultation will run for a full 12 weeks after all of the accessible versions of the paper are published.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she made of the potential implications for her policies of the report by the Financial Regulators Complaints Commissioner on the Financial Conduct Authority's handling of Safe Hands Plans Limited, published on 11 March 2025.

Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

I am sympathetic to all the Safe Hands customers who have lost money, following the collapse of the firm in 2022.

Once concerns were raised about the funeral plan market, in 2021 the Government legislated to bring all pre-paid funeral plan providers and intermediaries within the regulatory remit of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). This made it illegal to sell pre-paid funeral plans without authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority, protecting 1.6 million customers and their families.

The FCA has published its response to the Financial Regulator Complaints Commissioner. The FCA has been clear that it is not possible to immediately act on every piece of anonymous intelligence they receive and Safe Hands failed to meet the threshold for authorisation due to underlying issues with their business model.

We support the FCA's handling of Safe Hands, and it is clear that they acted reasonably in this case, as they had a clear plan to properly scrutinise Safe Hands’ business during the authorisations process. As the Commissioner acknowledges, there is also no evidence that alternative action from the FCA would have led to different outcomes for Safe Hands customers.

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