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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to reduce fly tipping in rural areas.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Local councils are responsible for keeping their public land clear of fly-tipped waste, including public rural areas. Local councils have powers to take enforcement action against offenders. Anyone caught fly-tipping may be prosecuted which can lead to a significant fine, a community sentence or even imprisonment. Instead of prosecuting, local councils can choose to issue a fixed penalty notice (on-the-spot fine) of up to £1,000 to fly-tippers. Councils also have powers to seize and search vehicles of suspected fly-tippers.

We encourage and support councils to make good use of their enforcement powers. For example, we have recently published best practice guidance and case studies on the website of the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group, which will support councils to make better use of their power to seize vehicles of suspected fly-tippers.

We are seeking powers in the Crime and Policing Bill to provide statutory fly-tipping enforcement guidance to support councils to consistently, appropriately and effectively exercise these existing powers.

Defra chairs the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group through which we work with a wide range of stakeholders to share good practice on preventing fly-tipping.

We committed in our manifesto to force fly-tippers and vandals to clean up their mess. Defra will consult on giving local councils the powers to issue fly-tippers with conditional cautions, one of a range of pre-court community-based sanctions. These cautions could see offenders complete up to 20 hours of unpaid work, cleaning our streets or parks, and pay back the cost of cleaning up the waste that they have dumped on public land. If an offender admits to the crime, agrees to the caution and complies with the conditions, they will not face prosecution.

We are looking at measures to award penalty points on driving licences for those found guilty of fly-tipping, which could lead to them losing their licences altogether. This would make it harder for offenders to continue dumping illegally if they are disqualified from driving and send a clear warning that fly-tipping is not tolerated.

In addition to that, we recently published the Waste Crime Action Plan which sets out how we will tackle waste crime through prevention, enforcement, and accelerating the clean-up effort. More information can be found on: Waste Crime Action Plan - GOV.UK.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to financially support hospitality businesses that are dealing with the loss of business rates relief and an increase in their rateable value at the same time.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

At the Budget, the Valuation Office announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation, which came into effect on 1 April. This revaluation is the first since the pandemic, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties as they recover from the pandemic.

In recognition of the impact of the revaluation on bills, the Government has introduced a support package worth £4.3 billion, to protect against ratepayers seeing large overnight increases in bills. This includes an expanded Supporting Small Business scheme, which caps the bill increases of ratepayers who previously received retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) relief.

The Government has also introduced new permanently lower multipliers for eligible RHL properties. These new multipliers are worth nearly £1 billion per year and benefit over 750,000 properties.

Unlike RHL relief, the new multipliers are permanent, giving businesses certainty and stability, and there is no cap, meaning all qualifying properties on high streets across England benefit. The RHL multipliers are set 5 pence below their national equivalents. As they are funded by a high-value multiplier on the top one per cent of properties, making them even lower would have led to a higher multiplier for high-value properties, including high-value RHL properties and those used by Industrial Strategy sectors.

As a result of these measures, most properties seeing increases have them capped at 15 per cent or less in 2026/27, or £800 for the smallest.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the merits of increasing the Business Rates discount to twenty percent for hospitality venues.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

At the Budget, the Valuation Office announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation, which came into effect on 1 April. This revaluation is the first since the pandemic, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties as they recover from the pandemic.

In recognition of the impact of the revaluation on bills, the Government has introduced a support package worth £4.3 billion, to protect against ratepayers seeing large overnight increases in bills. This includes an expanded Supporting Small Business scheme, which caps the bill increases of ratepayers who previously received retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) relief.

The Government has also introduced new permanently lower multipliers for eligible RHL properties. These new multipliers are worth nearly £1 billion per year and benefit over 750,000 properties.

Unlike RHL relief, the new multipliers are permanent, giving businesses certainty and stability, and there is no cap, meaning all qualifying properties on high streets across England benefit. The RHL multipliers are set 5 pence below their national equivalents. As they are funded by a high-value multiplier on the top one per cent of properties, making them even lower would have led to a higher multiplier for high-value properties, including high-value RHL properties and those used by Industrial Strategy sectors.

As a result of these measures, most properties seeing increases have them capped at 15 per cent or less in 2026/27, or £800 for the smallest.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the merits of delaying the Business Rates revaluation for hospitality businesses.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

At the Budget, the Valuation Office announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation, which came into effect on 1 April. This revaluation is the first since the pandemic, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties as they recover from the pandemic.

In recognition of the impact of the revaluation on bills, the Government has introduced a support package worth £4.3 billion, to protect against ratepayers seeing large overnight increases in bills. This includes an expanded Supporting Small Business scheme, which caps the bill increases of ratepayers who previously received retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) relief.

The Government has also introduced new permanently lower multipliers for eligible RHL properties. These new multipliers are worth nearly £1 billion per year and benefit over 750,000 properties.

Unlike RHL relief, the new multipliers are permanent, giving businesses certainty and stability, and there is no cap, meaning all qualifying properties on high streets across England benefit. The RHL multipliers are set 5 pence below their national equivalents. As they are funded by a high-value multiplier on the top one per cent of properties, making them even lower would have led to a higher multiplier for high-value properties, including high-value RHL properties and those used by Industrial Strategy sectors.

As a result of these measures, most properties seeing increases have them capped at 15 per cent or less in 2026/27, or £800 for the smallest.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how the educational rights of the Targeted Plus group will be enforced where those children do not have EHCPs.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

Changes to how support is delivered will be underlined by stronger accountability across local authorities and health and education settings to ensure each layer of support is delivered effectively.

Schools will be required to produce an Inclusion Strategy, drawing on evidence-informed best practice including new National Inclusion Standards, which will help to hold them accountable for practice across layers of support, including targeted plus. Ofsted will be able to draw on the strategy to assess how effectively leaders are planning for, implementing and delivering inclusive practice.

There will also be a legal duty on settings to produce an Individual Support Plan (ISP) for every child or young person receiving targeted plus support, to clearly record the support they are accessing. The use and quality of ISPs will be considered in Ofsted inspections, with clear routes for parents to raise concerns.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what diplomatic steps she is taking to help support the end of the civil war in Sudan.

Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

I refer the Hon Member to the oral statement made by the Foreign Secretary on 5 February following her recent visit to the Chad-Sudan border, and her speech to the United Nations on 19 February, available at the link below. Further updates will follow the Berlin Ministerial Conference this week.

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/let-this-be-the-time-that-the-world-comes-together-to-end-the-cycle-of-bloodshed-in-sudan-uk-statement-at-the-un-security-council.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how Specialist Resource Provisions fit within new school bases proposed in SEND reforms.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

As part of our reforms, to clarify and simplify terminology, we will collectively describe provision such as special educational needs (SEN) units, resourced provision and pupil support units as inclusion bases, underpinned by two models:

1. Support bases: commissioned and funded by individual settings and academy trusts.
2. Specialist bases: commissioned and funded by the local authority.

There are many examples of inclusion bases in mainstream settings that offer high quality teaching, bespoke learning environments and flexible access to specialist education or health support, helping children thrive academically, socially, and emotionally. These will continue to play an important role.

As a core component of our £3.7 billion high needs capital settlement we will invest in a transformational expansion of inclusion bases, so they become a core part of every local education offer. They will deliver high quality teaching and support to more children who benefit from provision that bridges the gap between mainstream and specialist.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many ECAA Indefinite Leave to Remain applications are pending.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Leave granted under the European Community Association Agreement (ECAA) allows people, largely Turkish nationals, to work or establish businesses in the UK.

The Home Office does not publish information specifically relating to the volume of applications pending or volume of applications decided under the ECAA route. However, from the immigration statistics published for the calendar year ending December 2025, it was noted that the published data on grants of Settlement under the Work Permit holder category largely relates to persons granted leave under the ECAA route.

The latest statistics show that there were 6,367 Settlement grants for Work Permit holders, an increase of 72% on the previous 12 months.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many ECAA Indefinite Leave to Remain applications have been decided in the last four months.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Leave granted under the European Community Association Agreement (ECAA) allows people, largely Turkish nationals, to work or establish businesses in the UK.

The Home Office does not publish information specifically relating to the volume of applications pending or volume of applications decided under the ECAA route. However, from the immigration statistics published for the calendar year ending December 2025, it was noted that the published data on grants of Settlement under the Work Permit holder category largely relates to persons granted leave under the ECAA route.

The latest statistics show that there were 6,367 Settlement grants for Work Permit holders, an increase of 72% on the previous 12 months.

100th anniversary of the birth of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules (No. 2)