Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has had discussions with Cabinet colleagues on the potential merits of taxing high-polluting corporations to help support net zero initiatives.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to maintaining an ambitious carbon pricing scheme to ensure that polluters continue to pay for their emissions. The UK’s main carbon pricing scheme is the Emissions Trading Scheme, which covers emissions from power generation, energy intensive industries and aviation (domestic, UK-EEA and UK-Gibraltar flights). The ETS is one of the most cost-effective tools for promoting decarbonisation and plays a key role in helping the UK achieve Net Zero emissions by 2050.
The UK ETS raised approximately £3.5bn in revenue in 2024/25.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Supreme Court ruling of [2025] UKSC 16, 16 April 2025, on levels of provision of (a) services, (b) healthcare and (c) workplace facilities for trans people; and what steps she is taking to support trans people who cannot access those services.
Answered by Nia Griffith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Wales Office)
The Government has set out our expectation that organisations follow the clarity the Supreme Court ruling provides. The EHRC has committed to support organisations with its updated statutory Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations which they are consulting on. We encourage people to ensure their views are heard by submitting a response to the consultation which launched on Tuesday 20th May.
Trans people should have access to the services and facilities they need. It is also vitally important that trans people receive the care and support they need when accessing NHS services, and that they are treated with dignity and respect.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offenders convicted of non-sexual offences against children have been released under early release schemes; and what steps her Department is taking to supervise those offenders.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
This Government inherited prisons days from collapse. We were forced to take decisive action to prevent overcrowding and protect the public. Certain offences have been excluded from the SDS change including sex offences irrespective of sentence length; serious violent offences with a sentence of four years or more; specified offences linked to domestic abuse irrespective of sentence length (including stalking, coercive or controlling behaviour and non-fatal strangulation); as well as offences concerning national security.
Offenders released are subject to strict licence conditions, including curfews, exclusion zones, and regular supervision by the Probation Service. Any breach of these conditions can result in immediate recall to custody.
We have published SDS40 release data alongside the quarterly Offender Management Statistics: Standard Determinate Sentence (SDS40) release data - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to increase funding for emergency services.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Government is committed to supporting our vital emergency services.
That is why in 2025/26 we have increased health spending by £22.6 billion relative to 2023/24, policing funding by £1.1 billion and standalone Fire and Rescue Authorities by £65.5 million compared to 2024/25.
Funding settlements for emergency services over the next three years will be set out in June’s Spending Review.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of methodological changes to the classification of certain types of accommodation between the 2011 and 2021 censuses by the Office for National Statistics on local authorities' Housing Delivery Test results.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The established methodology for official statistics on housing supply utilises the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) census to improve the quality and reliability of these statistics. The census dwelling count is subject to intensive validation processes and address matching and provides the baseline for the net additional dwellings statistics.
A comparison of total dwelling stock counts between the 2021 and 2011 censuses led to adjustments to some of the net additional dwellings figures, which are used as the basis for the Housing Delivery Test (HDT).
This only affected the 2020/21 delivery year in the latest HDT 2023 statistics.
Following discussions with the ONS and with some relevant local authorities, we believe that in limited and specific cases these census adjusted figures are not appropriate to use for the purposes of the HDT. We are therefore in contact with relevant local authorities and have issued recalculations where needed.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which groups were consulted on the withdrawal of funding for non-specialist assistive software through the Disabled Students' Allowance.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department engaged with individual disability experts with relevant experience to gather feedback on the proposals. These experts were consulted in a personal capacity, and the department is therefore not able to provide their personal information.
This policy change relates to non-specialist spelling and grammar software only. The decision to remove non-specialist spelling and grammar software from Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA) funding was made on the grounds that there are now free to access versions available with the required functionality to meet students’ disability-related support needs, and it is therefore not an effective use of public money to continue to fund this type of software through DSA.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding her Department plans to provide for (a) dance, (b) drama, (c) music and (d) musical theatre higher education courses in each of the next three years.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is determined that the higher education (HE) funding system should deliver for our economy, for universities and for students. The HE sector needs a secure financial footing, which is why, after seven years of frozen fee caps under the previous government, we took last year the difficult decision to increase maximum tuition fee limits for the 2025/26 academic year by 3.1%, in line with the forecast rate of inflation.
In return for the increased investment we are asking students to make we expect the sector to deliver the very best outcomes, both for those students and for the country.
Additionally, the government provides annual funding to the HE sector through the Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG), which supports teaching of expensive-to-deliver subjects, access and participation and world-leading specialist providers.
My right hon. Friend, The Secretary of State for Education will shortly issue guidance to the Office for Students, setting out SPG funding for the 2025/26 academic year and her priorities for it. Funding for subsequent years will be agreed following the government’s spending review.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when her Department will publish the response to the consultation entitled Enabling remote attendance and proxy voting at local authority meetings, which closed on 19 December 2024.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Our consultation on remote attendance and proxy voting closed on 19 December, and results will be published in due course. The consultation aimed to consider how to support the local government sector to modernise democratic engagement and remove unnecessary barriers to participation.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she plans to review the thresholds for Small Business Rate Relief to reflect changes in rateable values ahead of the 2026 revaluation.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Currently, Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) is available to businesses with a single property below a set rateable value. Eligible properties under £12,000 will receive 100 per cent relief, which means over a third of businesses in England (more than 700,000) pay no business rates at all. There is also tapered support available to properties valued between £12,000 and £15,000, which an additional c.60,000 businesses benefit from.
The Government is committed to retaining SBRR, which is a permanent relief set down in legislation. As highlighted in the Transforming Business Rates Discussion Paper published at Autumn Budget 2024, the Government is interested in hearing stakeholders’ views on the extent to which the current system acts as a barrier to investment and specifically, whether the current eligibility criteria for SBRR impacts businesses' incentives to invest and expand into a second property.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of excluding CCTV systems used for security purposes from business rates valuations.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
At the Autumn Budget, the government published the Transforming Business Rates Discussion Paper, which sets out priority areas for reform. This paper invites industry to help co-design a fairer business rates system that supports investment and is fit for the 21st century.
In summer, the Government will publish an interim report that sets out a clear direction of travel for the business rates system, with further policy detail to follow at Autumn Budget 2025.
Improvement Relief was introduced in April 2024 and provides 12 months of relief for qualifying improvements to a property, including installation of CCTV where this increases a property’s RV.