Valerie Vaz

The Government is committed to tackling barriers to trade, including reducing frictions at the UK Border.

To do this we need effective dialogue with businesses. Minister Thomas and I recently hosted a roundtable to gather businesses’ views on how to improve the UK-EU trading relationship. My officials are also engaging with businesses to understand the barriers they face and how we can support them to grow and export to the EU.

DBT is also working across government to understand how initiatives like the UK Single Trade Window and the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) can improve the passage of goods.

The Government is committed to improving the UK's trade and investment relationship with the European Union (EU). Only a few days ago I met the German Ambassador, and I recently has the pleasure of meeting with my Italian counterpart. The Secretary of State for Business and Trade has had a range of positive discussions with his counterparts, including the EU Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis and other European ministers. As a Government, we are committed to restarting the UK-EU relationship, so from the Prime Minister down, we have established ongoing and productive engagement with the European Union and Member States.

Defra continues to monitor and review the impact of the controls. We are working closely with industry, trade partners and enforcement agencies to minimise disruption and costs to trade, while continuing to protect our biosecurity.

Defra engages with the horticultural industry through the Plant Health Portal and Plant Health Advisory Forum.

Defra engages with GB businesses well in advance of any such changes, through the Plant Health Portal and Plant Health Advisory Forum

Any changes to the required content of phytosanitary certificates are communicated to third country trading partners via World Trade Organisation notifications and through letters directly to third country competent authorities. Such notifications are sent months in advance to ensure that third countries have time to comment on, and adapt to, the changes.

The exception to this is during emergency situations, when the high level of biosecurity risk means new requirements are implemented more rapidly.

Below is the number of inspectors the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) has in post at Executive Officer (EO) and Higher Executive Officer (HEO) grade, along with the number of Senior Executive Officers (SEO) who also support delivery. APHA also has apprentice plant health inspectors.

The numbers are subject to change as APHA has several vacancies which it is recruiting to fill, and has potential new starters who are going through the security checks and onboarding process. They are not included in the figures until they have started working for APHA.

Total - 378

GB plant health services have increased the number of plant health inspection staff to service the demand for import checks in England and Wales of EU plants and plant products. Inspector levels are being monitored to ensure these meet demand and deliver checks in line with set Service Level Agreements and ensure minimal trade disruption. Border Control Posts (BCPs) are designed to handle high volumes of imported sanitary and phytosanitary goods with inspectors working shifts to carry out reliable checks which minimise friction on traffic flow. Checks at BCPs are handled by trained staff ensuring inspections are undertaken safely and efficiently.

The Department has not made a specific estimate on the two-year survival rate for patients with bowel cancer in Walsall, however, the Department is focused on improving survival rates for all cancers, and on meeting all National Health Service cancer waiting time targets, so no patient waits longer than they should.

No specific assessment has been made on the impact of the levels of availability of robotics for cancer operations. However, there is a robotic assisted surgery clinical strategy for the Black Country Provider Collaborative which has increased robotic surgery access for all patients in the Black Country, particularly for renal service.

No specific assessment is planned. There is a robotic assisted surgery clinical strategy for the Black Country Provider Collaborative which has increased robotic surgery access for all patients in the Black Country, particularly for renal service.

As part of the Government’s Safer Streets mission, the Home Secretary has made a clear commitment to strengthen neighbourhood policing through the introduction of a Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee. This includes delivering an additional 13,000 police officers, PCSOs and special constables in neighbourhood policing roles up and down the country and ensuring every community has a named officer to turn to. Every part of the country needs to benefit from this pledge.

We are working closely with policing to implement this commitment and will announce our plans for the delivery of neighbourhood officers shortly.

This Government is determined to ensure the police have the resources they need to protect our communities.

On 19th November, the Home Secretary announced that government funding for policing will increase by over half a billion pounds; this includes an increase of over £260m in the core grant for police forces, additional funding for neighbourhood policing, the NCA and counter terrorism.

Force level funding allocations for the financial year 2025-26 will be confirmed at the police funding settlement. Funding for future years beyond 2025-26 will be set out in phase two of the Spending Review where we will want to consider police funding in the round. This will include how police funding is allocated to forces.

This Government is determined to ensure the police have the resources they need to protect our communities.

On 19th November, the Home Secretary announced that government funding for policing will increase by over half a billion pounds; this includes an increase of over £260m in the core grant for police forces, additional funding for neighbourhood policing, the NCA and counter terrorism.

Force level funding allocations for the financial year 2025-26 will be confirmed at the police funding settlement. Funding for future years beyond 2025-26 will be set out in phase two of the Spending Review where we will want to consider police funding in the round. This will include how police funding is allocated to forces.

West Midlands Police was allocated a total of £2,547.1m during the period covered by the previous Government’s Police Uplift Programme.

By the end of the Police Uplift Programme West Midlands Police recruited 1,376 additional uplift officers (headcount) against a total three-year allocation of 1,218 officers.

Forces are operationally independent, and it is for Chief Constables and directly elected PCCs, and Mayors with PCC functions to make operational decisions on how best to use their available resources to meet local needs.

The Home Office does not hold information on the number of police officers and Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) specifically in rural and urban areas of West Midlands.

The Home Office collects and publishes data on the size of the police workforce in England and Wales on a bi-annual basis in the ‘Police Workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-wales.

The data is collected at Police Force Area (PFA) level only, and information at lower levels of geography is not collected.

Information on the number of police officers and PCSOs, broken down by PFA, as at 31 March 2007 to 2024 can be found in the ‘Police Workforce Open Data Table’ here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/669a910da3c2a28abb50d34b/open-data-table-police-workforce-240724.ods

Data on the police workforce as at 31 March 2025 is due to be published in Summer 2025.

The restoration of neighbourhood policing is at the heart of this Government’s plans for police reform. We are working with policing to implement a new Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, which will be supported by delivering an additional 13,000 police officers, PCSOs and special constables in neighbourhood policing roles across the country and we will ensure every community has a named officer to turn to.