Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will take steps with the Food Standards Agency to (a) review the standards for baby food products and (b) ensure that those standards are updated to include (i) new baby foods made available in the last 20 years, (ii) a limit on the total sugar content of baby foods and (iii) standards for health claims made by manufacturers on baby food packaging.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Children’s early years provide an important foundation for their future health and strongly influences many aspects of wellbeing in later life.
It is vital that we maintain the highest standards for foods consumed by babies and infants, which is why we have regulations in place that set nutritional, compositional, and labelling standards for commercial baby food. These ensure that the ingredients used in commercial baby food are suitable for the nutritional needs of infants and require businesses to ensure that labelling in clear and not misleading. The regulations also set labelling standards to ensure consumers have clear and accurate information about the products they buy. We continue to keep these regulations under review to ensure they reflect the latest scientific and dietary guidelines.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the effective roll out of broadband infrastructure in rural areas.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Project Gigabit is designed to deliver gigabit-capable broadband to premises that will not be built to by the market without subsidy. The significant majority of these premises will be in rural areas.
More than £2.3 billion of Project Gigabit contracts have already been signed to connect over 1 million more premises with gigabit-capable broadband. This includes two contracts being delivered by Wessex Internet benefiting the Mid Dorset and North Poole constituency.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Driving and Vehicle Standards Agency's consultation entitled Improving car driving test booking rules, published on 28 May 2025, what her Department's planned timeline is for making changes to car driving test booking rules.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
As part of the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s (DVSA) plan to reduce driving test waiting times, announced in December 2024, the agency launched a call for evidence seeking views and experiences of booking and managing practical car driving tests, which received almost 27,000 responses. The DVSA analysed the evidence from this and developed proposals on improving processes.
On the 23 April, the Secretary of State for Transport appeared before the Transport Select Committee and announced the consultation, following on from the call for evidence, had been fast-tracked.
As acknowledged in the announcement regarding these measures, DVSA understands the potential impact on learner drivers, including younger drivers, and the importance of helping learners pass quickly.
The consultation launched on 28 May. Views are being sought from the driver training industry, learner drivers and other interested parties. The consultation will close at 11:59pm on 23 July 2025.
The consultation has already seen a large number of responses. Once closed, and all responses analysed, DVSA will announce next steps as soon as possible.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the process for booking a driving test through the DVLA test booking system on the mental health of young people.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
As part of the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s (DVSA) plan to reduce driving test waiting times, announced in December 2024, the agency launched a call for evidence seeking views and experiences of booking and managing practical car driving tests, which received almost 27,000 responses. The DVSA analysed the evidence from this and developed proposals on improving processes.
On the 23 April, the Secretary of State for Transport appeared before the Transport Select Committee and announced the consultation, following on from the call for evidence, had been fast-tracked.
As acknowledged in the announcement regarding these measures, DVSA understands the potential impact on learner drivers, including younger drivers, and the importance of helping learners pass quickly.
The consultation launched on 28 May. Views are being sought from the driver training industry, learner drivers and other interested parties. The consultation will close at 11:59pm on 23 July 2025.
The consultation has already seen a large number of responses. Once closed, and all responses analysed, DVSA will announce next steps as soon as possible.
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 steps she is taking to support local authorities in receipt of exceptional financial support to resolve funding issues in the long term.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government recognises the significant pressures that councils are facing. The Spending Review provides over £5 billion of new grant funding over the next three years for local services that communities rely on. The £3.4 billion, when taken together with a 3% core council tax referendum principle and a 2% adult social care precept, results in an average overall real terms increase in local authority core spending power of 2.6% per year over the next multi-year settlement (2026-27 to 2028-29).
The government is committed to fixing the foundations of local government through ambitious reform. The Fair Funding Review 2.0 is open from 20 June to 15 August and seeks views on the approach to local authority funding reform through the Local Government Finance Settlement from 2026-27.
In line with our commitment to support councils’ receiving Exceptional Financial Support to improve, as a condition of the support agreed councils will be subject to additional external assurance to give them independent and expert help to drive local improvement and manage their financial position.
Finally, we also followed through on our commitment to not make borrowing more expensive for those councils in the most financial difficulty, by removing the condition requiring a 1% premium on borrowing from the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB).
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that it conducts a full review of the requester's (a) case and (b) complaint when Access to Work reconsideration requests are made.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Access to Work process for reviewing reconsideration requests, as well as complaints, includes a full review of the original case, including all relevant documentation and communications relating to the original decision. To help ensure impartiality, these reviews are conducted by staff there were not involved in the original decision.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the housing benefit taper rate on young people in supported housing who increase working hours.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The income taper in Housing Benefit ensures people in work are better off than someone wholly reliant on benefits. In addition to any financial advantage, there are important non-financial benefits of working. These include learning new skills, improved confidence and independence as well as a positive effect on an individual's mental and physical health.
Notwithstanding these positive outcomes from work, the Department acknowledges there is a challenge presented by the interaction between Universal Credit and Housing Benefit for those residing in Supported Housing and Temporary Accommodation and receiving their housing support through Housing Benefit. The department is considering the issue carefully in partnership with stakeholders.
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, whether she plans to include youth homelessness in the cross-government homelessness strategy.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question 52307 on 14 May 2025.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what discussions the Office for National Statistics has had with local government stakeholders on the 2031 census.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon Lady’s Parliamentary Question of 17th June is attached.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps with the Food Standards Agency to align the labelling of early-weaning baby food sold as suitable for babies aged four months and older with NHS guidance on introducing solid foods to babies from six months old.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Children’s early years provide an important foundation for their future health and strongly influences many aspects of wellbeing in later life.
Government dietary advice is that babies should be introduced to a healthy and varied diet, alongside their usual breast milk or first infant formula, when they are approximately six months old. This advice is communicated on the Start for Life and the NHS.UK websites, and we recommend businesses follow this advice when labelling products. Manufacturers are aware of this dietary advice and many already state six months on their products or have made a commitment to do so soon.
The Department is responsible for legislation and policy on foods for infants and young children. Regulations set minimum standards for nutrition, composition, and labelling for commercial baby food, and we challenge industry to act responsibly and take voluntary action to align products with dietary guidelines and best practice.
We continue to keep regulations for commercial baby food under review against the latest scientific and dietary guidelines.