Asked by: Tom Rutland (Labour - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what legislative plans her Department has for requiring coroners to determine secondary causes of death following suicide.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government has no plans to change the information which coroners are required to determine, with regard to cause of death in cases of suicide.
The information recorded by the coroner in the Record of Inquest is dependent on the circumstances of the individual case and is at the coroner’s discretion as an independent judicial office holder. Any medical conditions mentioned in part 2 of the Record of Inquest must be known or suspected to have contributed to the death, and not simply be other conditions which were present at the time of death.
With regard to the possible motivation for, or contributory factors in, a suicide, it cannot be guaranteed that consistent and comprehensive information on a deceased person’s background will be made available to the coroner in every case. In addition, expecting coroners to routinely assess the motivation for individual suicides would take the coronial role fundamentally beyond its legal parameters, which are to determine who has died, and how, when and where they died.
Asked by: Tom Rutland (Labour - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment with the Secretary of State for Business and Trade of the potential merits of applying the same level of (a) import duties, (b) VAT on (i) import and (ii) end sales, (c) corporation tax and (d) other taxes to (A) domestic manufacturers and (B) international manufacturers who export goods into UK markets.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is clear that all businesses, whether based in the UK or overseas, should pay their fair share of taxes where they operate in the UK
We will continue to keep the UK’s Most Favoured Nation tariff schedule, known as the UK Global Tariff, under review to reduce unnecessary costs and promote a stable operating environment for businesses.
UK VAT is charged at the same rate regardless of whether goods are produced domestically or imported.
The Government has also taken significant steps to ensure that the amount of Corporation Tax companies pay in the UK on their profits reflects the economic activities they undertake here. For instance, the Corporate Interest Restriction rules prevent multinationals from avoiding tax by using contrived financing arrangements to make excessive interest deductions.
The introduction of a global minimum corporate tax will protect against aggressive tax planning and profit shifting, helping ensure profits made in the UK are taxed in the UK.
Asked by: Tom Rutland (Labour - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that chalk streams are protected in planning policies.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 45390 on 23 April 2025.
Asked by: Tom Rutland (Labour - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department is taking steps to audit overseas factories that import into the UK for the same (a) social and (b) ethical compliance standards applied to domestic manufacturers.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The UK supports voluntary due diligence approaches taken by UK businesses to identify and prevent exploitation of workers and prevent environmental harms across their operations and supply chains, in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.
To promote the OECD Guidelines, the UK also operates an independent UK National Contact Point (NCP). The UK NCP engages bilaterally and multilaterally with the 51 other NCPs around the world, to ensure a consistent application, awareness and understanding of the OECD Guidelines.
Asked by: Tom Rutland (Labour - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to ensure international companies exporting into the UK are held to the same (a) quality and (b) safety regulations as domestic (i) manufacturers and (ii) sellers.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Product safety regulations set requirements for the safety of consumer products placed on the UK market. Importers must ensure their products comply and distributors must not supply products that they know, or should know, are dangerous.
The Office for Product Safety and Standards and local authority regulators enforce the law. They use data and intelligence to target enforcement activity at dangerous and non-compliant products at the border.
The Government’s Product Regulation and Metrology Bill will provide powers to further strengthen our product safety framework and update it to reflect modern supply chains, including through new, proportionate duties on online marketplaces.
Asked by: Tom Rutland (Labour - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that high quality candidates are (a) recruited to and (b) retained within the civil service.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
We are committed to ensuring we attract, develop and retain talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds to create a modern Civil Service that delivers high quality public services.
Recruiting and retaining talented individuals is vital to support the delivery of the Plan for Change. As my Rt Hon Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster outlined in his Reform speech, there is a clear need to overhaul the recruitment processes to reduce bureaucracy and support external candidates.
Actions to address this include embedding a test-and-learn approach to recruitment, reviewing the current selection processes to ensure they are appropriate and support all candidates and working with departments to utilise secondments to recruit and retain key skills.
Asked by: Tom Rutland (Labour - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a medal to recognise people who have suffered severe injuries in the line of duty.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
It is only right that we recognise the sacrifices made many members of the emergency services and we are always willing to consider proposes for new medals towards that end.
However, any official award is a gift from the Government, on behalf of His Majesty The King, and the creation of a new award requires cross Government consensus and approval from the Committee on The Grant of Honours, Decorations and Medals (“HD Committee”), before advice is put to HM The King to make any subsequent decision.
Asked by: Tom Rutland (Labour - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to establish a national structure to set national standards across the UK Fire Service.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government funds the independent Fire Standards Board (FSB) to develop and maintain a comprehensive set of professional standards for fire and rescue services in England. The FSB has published 19 national standards for fire and rescue services: these cover a range of topics relating to operational management, leadership and ethics.
The Government has accepted, in principle, the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s recommendation to establish a national college of fire and rescue. The Inquiry report suggested a range of potential functions for a college to fulfil, including the development of policies and procedures to ensure both the effectiveness of fire and rescue services and the safety of firefighters and the public. The Government response to the Inquiry’s report notes that a necessary first step in the process will be to consult on the functions a college should have and how it could best be structured and delivered. We expect to launch this consultation later in the year.
Any future college function relating to national standards would build on the work already undertaken by the FSB.
Asked by: Tom Rutland (Labour - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to (a) support farmers who have been unable to access funding through the Sustainable Farming Initiative, (b) seek an extension or extra funding for the SFI for those who are eligible but have not yet been able to claim and (c) ensure that future communications provide clarity and assurances on funding application deadlines.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We remain committed to investing £5 billion of funding in the farming budget this year and next (£2.6 billion for 24/25 and the £2.4 billion for 25/26, as previously announced).
The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) is an important offer, but it is part of a wider package. We remain committed to investing in Environmental Land Management schemes. We plan to launch the new Higher Tier scheme later this year; Capital Grants will re-open in summer 2025; we continue to move forward with Landscape Recovery; and we are increasing payment rates for Higher Level Stewardship agreement holders to recognise their ongoing commitment to delivering environmental outcome.
Whilst we aim to give notice where possible, to ensure fair access, and to avoid the risk of overspend, we could not give any advance notice of the closure of SFI, to avoid creating a sudden increase in the level of demand.
We expect to publish more information about the reformed SFI offer in summer 2025. This will include an indication of when we expect to re-open SFI for applications.
Asked by: Tom Rutland (Labour - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of zonal electricity pricing on (a) households and (b) businesses in the south of England.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The previous government consulted on various options to reform the electricity market and the government has committed to making a decision by the middle of 2025. We are developing further analysis to determine the impact of zonal or reformed national pricing on different consumers, geographical locations and businesses, working closely with the Department for Business and Trade.
The fundamental quantitative analysis will include scenario modelling of the electricity system to understand the wide-reaching impacts of market reforms. This will produce estimates of changes in the total electricity system cost and distributional consequences for consumer bills. This analysis will inform the final decision on market reform in mid-2025.