Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
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.
Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps are being taken to provide funding to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Funding for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is being provided through the Government’s Spending Review (SR) settlement, confirmed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in June 2025, which allocated £13.9 billion of capital funding for the period 2025 to 2030.
The SR settlement is the largest ever capital investment in nuclear decommissioning and demonstrates the government’s commitment to keeping the UK’s former nuclear sites and facilities safe.
This funding enables NDA to continue to perform its core mission of keeping former nuclear sites safe and secure while progressing decommissioning and nuclear waste management.
Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help support refugee integration.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Refugees can already access the labour market, benefits, employment support and funded English language support.
After the introduction of our asylum reforms, we will create new work and study routes for those who are receiving protection, which will provide a faster path to lifetime settlement.
And we will introduce new safe and legal routes – again, with a faster path to settlement – as we move away from unsafe and illegal routes into this country
Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of alternative electoral systems to the single member district system used to elect MPs.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government has no plans to change the electoral system for UK Parliamentary elections.
Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
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 has taken to ensure that members of the Food Strategy Advisory Board do not have conflicts of interest.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
FSAB members are appointed in a personal capacity to advise and inform the strategic direction of the Government’s Food Strategy based on their professional experience in the food and drink system. They are not appointed to represent a body, group or part of the sector. FSAB membership is unpaid and not political appointments.
To guide against misuse of privileged information and conflicts of interest, FSAB members are obliged to sign non-disclosure agreements and adhere to the Seven Principles of Public Life. Additionally, per the Terms of Reference they are expected to:
At the first meeting a member joins they are invited to give a verbal register of their conflicts of interest, which are recorded in the FSAB minutes.
Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department is taking steps with British Wool to help increase the supply of British-trained sheep shearers.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
British Wool is the main provider and promoter of training for sheep shearers in the UK. In each of the last five years (2021-2025) they have invested an average of £134,000 net costs in providing shearing training for between 798 and 898 people at skill levels ranging from beginners through to highly proficient commercial shearers. This includes the training of around 100- 200 young farmers a year who also receive a 50% discount on fees.
Defra works closely with British Wool and the wider sheep industry to encourage the continued delivery and where possible, expansion of the sheep shearing training programme. However, Defra recognise the challenges the industry faces in maintaining the number of required shearers who need to possess a high level of skill but can only utilise these skills for a very short period of the year.
Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of ending temporary concessionary visas for sheep shearers on sheep welfare.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra recognises the importance that shearing sheep plays in managing the health and welfare of around 30m sheep in the UK flock, and the continued challenges that the industry faces each year in sourcing sufficient numbers of trained shearers.
The department is also aware of the role that shearers and sheep farmers from countries such as Australia and New Zealand have provided in sharing skills and expertise with UK sheep farmers as well as in supporting the health and welfare of the UK flock.
Defra continues to work closely with the industry in addressing these challenges and recognises the good and extensive work undertaken by British Wool each year to provide training for domestic sheep shearers.
Visa concessions are a matter for the Home Office.
Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of compensation for HMRC staff due to the late award of the Flexibility Payment.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC has considered the appropriateness and potential merits of compensation and reflected on the factors set out below:
HMRC is acutely aware of its additional role as the UK Tax Authority to ensure that public funds are managed with propriety, regularity, and value for money.
On conclusion of the assessment, HMRC does not believe that the delayed payment of the 2025 Flexibility Payment rates, while staff continued to be paid the former rates are sufficiently exceptional, sustained, or significant to require compensation.
Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of ending temporary concessionary visas for sheep shearers on the total labour supply of sheep shearers for the farming sector.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Immigration Rules concessionary arrangements are temporary and subject to regular Ministerial review. The sheep shearing concession had been operating for 14 years and closed after the 2025 shearing season as it reasonable to expect that over this period a long-term sustainable solution had been found to fill this workforce gap. To provide plenty of time to plan and transition to new arrangements DEFRA and the sector was informed last year that the concession would not be renewed again.
In addition, those in the UK on visas which allow general work rights, such as dependants or Youth Mobility Scheme visa holders, are free to take up work as a sheep shearer subject to the relevant visa restrictions.
Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to increase the number of private jet passengers paying the higher rate of Air Passenger Duty.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is ensuring all private jets are taxed fairly. Currently, only 36% of private jet passengers pay the higher APD rate, while most pay the same as those on commercial flights, despite using a more premium service with far higher emissions per passenger.
Building on the 50% rate increase announced at Autumn Budget 2024, at Budget 2025, the government announced that it would extend the higher rate to all private jets over 5.7 tonnes from April 2027.
This change ensures that private jet passengers pay higher rates of APD compared to commercial flyers and ensures fair and consistent taxation across private aviation.