Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has recent discussions with the Environment Agency on their inspection plans for the battery storage units at Cleve Hill Solar Park.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) does not directly regulate the batteries associated with solar power schemes; this is the remit of the Local Authority. The EA, under the planning processes, advises on various aspects associated with the building and operation of battery storage facilities to ensure that risks to the environment are appropriately managed. This includes site wide flood risk assessments and pollution prevention plans.
The EA are satisfied that drainage of the site, including the management of fire water, will prevent harm to the environment and that any recommendations have informed the Battery Safety Management Plan, approved by the Planning Inspector.
If a permit is required from the EA to undertake any part of the operation, the operator is expected to submit a permit application. Details of the proposal will be inspected and a permit granted, where it can be shown by the applicant that the proposal will not cause a risk to the environment. The EA inspects permitted sites to ensure compliance with permits.
If a pollution incident occurs, the EA will work with all other emergency services to ensure the environment is fully considered as part of the response.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 26 March 2025 to Question 39816 on Nitrogen Dioxide: Pollution Control, which road links within the South East non-agglomeration zone are expected to exceed the nitrogen dioxide limit value in each of the last five calendar years of the non-compliance period.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The most recent national compliance assessment for 2023 reported one road link in the South East non-agglomeration zone as being in exceedance of the annual mean limit value for nitrogen dioxide. This road link is a stretch of the A34 in the Vale of White Horse. We don’t hold up-to-date detailed modelled projections to predict the impact of all current policies on future NO2 concentrations, however current indicative estimates suggest that this road link will become compliant with the limit value in 2028.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 26 March 2025 to Question 39816 on Nitrogen Dioxide: Pollution Control, which localised hotspot is expected to delay compliance with the nitrogen dioxide limit value in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The localised hotspot in Newcastle-upon-Tyne is located on Stephenson Road A1058. The high nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations observed here are due to several local factors including high traffic volumes, queuing traffic, an incline in the road that requires vehicle acceleration and overhanging trees that partially trap pollution. There is considerable uncertainty in the estimate of when this location will become compliant with the annual mean NO2 limit value. The rest of Newcastle-upon-Tyne is expected to become compliant by 2029.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking with relevant authorities to improve tree coverage in (a) England and (b) Romford constituency.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is working towards the statutory target to reach 16.5% tree canopy and woodland cover in England by 2050. Defra is funding a significant package of grants and supporting activity across England to increase tree coverage. This includes funding a national network of fifteen Community Forests. These Forests are planting thousands of hectares of new trees and woodland in and around our towns and cities providing social, economic and environmental transformation. The Thames Chase Community Forest is part of this network with tree planting sites in Romford.
Asked by: Mark Francois (Conservative - Rayleigh and Wickford)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether the Minister for Trade Policy and Economic Security held discussions on (a) UK-China trade relations, (b) economic security and (c) any (i) existing and (ii) proposed commercial agreements during his recent visit to China; and whether he plans to publish a summary of the Minister's discussions.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
During my visit to China, I held frank and honest discussions with my counterparts on the opportunities and challenges in the bilateral trade relationship, including improving overall reciprocity in market access, raising UK concerns on level playing field issues and market distorting practices and discussing economic security issues. I am unable to comment on commercial discussions during the visit, for reasons of commercial sensitivity.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 9 April 2025 to Question 43516: Maternity Services, whether he has set a deadline for (a) outcome and (b) progress measures in the three year delivery plan for maternity and neonatal care.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England’s three year delivery plan for maternity and neonatal care services was published on 31 March 2023 and implementation of the objectives is due to run for three years until March 2026. Progress is monitored through the plan’s technical guidance, which sets out how progress will be tracked at a national level against the four key themes of the plan.
Due to the complexity of maternity and neonatal care and the need for robust validation, some of the outcome data is significantly lagged and will not be fully available within the lifetime of the plan. Much of this data is published by external organisations beyond NHS England.
Although the delivery plan spans three years, its objectives are intended to enable services to deliver improvements in care that will lead to sustained, long-term improvements in outcomes and experiences for women, babies, and families.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment she has made of the average time taken for Serco to tag (a) priority one critical offenders and (b) people classified as likely to offend.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Serco’s performance has been unacceptable, and we will not hesitate to impose further penalties if our high-performance targets are not met and performance does not improve. There are regular meetings between the Minister for Prisons and Probation and the CEO of Serco to impress upon him the need for improvement.
The contract contains strict time bound service levels within which all equipment installations for all electronic monitoring orders must take place. In addition, the small number of national security cases and those requiring more intensive monitoring plus Domestic Abuse Perpetrators on Licence and those with Domestic Abuse Protection Orders (DAPO) are prioritised. Electronic monitoring orders are identified by order type and terms such as priority one critical offenders and people classified as likely to offend are not used.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what information her Department holds on the number of TV license payers in each of the last five years.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The BBC is responsible for collection of the TV licence via TV Licensing. TV Licensing publishes the number of licences in force in its Annual Review, which can be found here: https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/about/our-performance-AB6
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what plans she has to consult on reforms to press regulation.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government currently has no plans to consult on reforms to press regulation.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) standard delivery, (b) fast delivery, and (c) oral pre-sentence reports were produced in (i) Wales and (ii) England in 2024.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Probation Service is responsible for producing pre-sentence reports (PSRs) where they have been requested by the Court. The PSR assesses the offender’s behaviour, the risk they pose, and recommend sentencing options tailored to the individual. The report can suggest community sentences and specific requirements like treatment programmes. Ultimately, the PSR provides recommendations to the Court, but the final decision rests with the judge.
The following table shows the number of PSRs prepared by the Probation Service and presented to the criminal courts in England and Wales between January 2024 and December 2024.
Magistrates' and Crown Courts | England | Wales | Total |
Total pre-sentence court reports (PSR) | 91,857 | 7,149 | 99,006 |
Standard PSR | 4,838 | 748 | 5,586 |
Fast Delivery PSR written | 71,157 | 4,376 | 75,533 |
Fast Delivery PSR oral | 15,862 | 2,025 | 17,887 |
Note, PSR figures by region are published every April as part of the Offender Management Statistics quarterly bulletin. Please also note that the data pipeline used to compile the figures has been updated. This change was introduced for the 2024 figures. More details can be found in the 'Probation data process transition' section of Chapter 6 of the publication, available here: Offender management statistics quarterly: October to December 2024 - GOV.UK.