Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to Table 1.2 of his Department's national statistics entitled Farm business income in England 2023/24 forecast, updated on 14 March 2024, whether his Department plans to provide financial support to dairy farmers in the context that their average farm business income in real terms is forecast to decrease by the greatest percentage among all farm types from financial year 2022-23 to financial year 2023-24.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK has a resilient and dynamic dairy sector which operates in an open market where the value of dairy commodities, including farmgate milk price, is established by those in the supply chain. The average Farm Business Income is at a 20-year high in 2022/23 following a previous 20-year high in 2021/22. The forecast decrease for 2023/24 would bring average Farm Business Income for dairy farm businesses back closer to historic trends. Through a range of government schemes, there is support for investment in dairy businesses through the Sustainable Farming Incentive, the animal health and welfare pathway and various productivity and innovation grants.
We have also recently introduced new legislation, The Fair Dealing Obligations (Milk) Regulations 2024, which creates new rules for dairy contracts covering issues such as pricing provisions, unilateral changes to contracts and notice periods. Ensuring fairer contracts will provide greater certainty for farmers and help the dairy industry thrive into the future.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to reduce waiting times for elective surgery for people in Suffolk Coastal constituency.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to increase National Health Service elective activity and productivity above pre-pandemic levels, while expanding capacity through creating a new network of community diagnostic centres and maximising all available independent sector capacity.
NHS England provides robust support and challenge to the trusts which have the highest number of patients waiting the longest for elective treatment, with each receiving bespoke regional or national intervention where it is required.
Asked by: Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how much levelling up funding his Department has allocated to Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
BCP Council have received a variety of levelling up support since 2019, including through some specific awards such as:
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of artificial intelligence on banking.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The adoption and deployment of AI is increasingly prevalent in the financial sector and has the potential to significantly improve productivity, both for individual banks and at an aggregate level. The government is committed to supporting the digital sector and has invested more than £3.5 billion in AI since 2014.
The government’s response to the AI White Paper consultation sets out how we are encouraging the safe use of AI across the economy by strengthening our global AI leadership (including by hosting the world’s first AI Safety Summit) and supporting the UK’s regulators to deliver on our pro-innovation framework.
Asked by: Douglas Ross (Conservative - Moray)
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 to help protect farmers against new strains of potato blight.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a holistic approach that carefully considers all available plant protection methods and keeps the use of pesticides to levels that are ecologically and economically justified. IPM lies at the heart of our approach to minimise the environmental impact of pesticides and is a key tool for businesses facing the challenges of pesticide resistance, removal of pesticides from the market, and changing pest pressures due to climate change. Within the National Action Plan for the Sustainable Use of Pesticides (NAP) we will set out our policies to increase the uptake of IPM by farmers, growers, amenity managers and amateur gardeners.
Having an IPM approach can reduce the risks associated with pesticides, combat pesticide resistance, and support sustainable agricultural productivity. IPM aims to diversify crop protection and reduce reliance on the use of chemical pesticides by making use of lower risk alternatives and promoting natural processes. For example, creating habitats for natural predators of plant pests, or using crop rotations to break pest, weed and disease cycles. When alternative methods are ineffective or unavailable, IPM also aims to optimise and minimise the use of chemical pesticides through targeted and precise application.
We have recently commissioned a package of research projects that will bring together scientific evidence underpinning IPM and to look at ways of further encouraging its uptake. This work will support farmers’ access to the most effective IPM tools available and ensure that we understand changing trends in pest threats across the UK.
Defra is also a partner in the European Research Area Network (ERA-Net) Co-Fund on Sustainable Crop Production (SusCrop). This research network aims to enhance cooperation and coordination of different national and regional research programmes focussing on agriculture and climate change, sustainable farming systems and biodiversity, sustainable water management, resource efficiency and resilience in the food chain. It also seeks to increase productivity through technological innovation.
Projects within SusCrop ERA-Net include: ‘Eco-friendly solutions for the integrated management of late and early blight of potatoes (ECOSOL)’ which aims to Identify Effective Biological Control Agents and Plant Resistance Inducers for the Control of Potato Late Blight in the field.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the time taken to assign to an investigator a complaint to the Independent Case Examiner.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The rate at which complaints can be allocated to an investigator is dependent on multiple factors including the volume and complexity of complaints received, as well as available investigative resource.
ICE is a demand led service and continues to receive high complaint intake volumes. It has experienced a 37% increase in referrals since April 2022, with an 18% increase in the 2023/24 operational year. Not all referrals into ICE are accepted for investigation. ICE has experienced an 83% increase in the volume of cases it has accepted since April 2020, with a 9% increase in the 2023/24 operational year.
The ICE office continues to review its process and operating model and continuously seeks opportunities to maximise productivity, ensuring it operates with optimum investigative resource. In the past 20 months (August 2022 – March 2024) resource levels at the ICE office have increased by 18%. The unit is operating at 99.11% of its agreed headcount.
The Office has reduced the volume of cases awaiting allocation to an investigator by 49% over the 2023/24 operational year. The combined number of cases being handled by the ICE Office at the end of March 2024 was 1462, this represents a 33% reduction from March 2023 despite the high intake levels experienced.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Spring Budget 2024, whether he has made an estimate of the potential return on investment of (a) violence reduction units, (b) hot spot policing, (c) increasing the capacity of children's homes and (d) the building of 15 new special free schools.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
These measures are part of the Public Sector Productivity Review, which will deliver up to £1.8 billion worth of benefits by 2029.
We have committed £75 million to expand the Violence Reduction Unit model across England and Wales, supporting a prevention-first approach to serious violence. Violence Reduction Units enable local public services such as health boards, schools and police leaders to coordinate their joint strategy to tackle serious violence among young people, preventing violent crime and reducing burdens on healthcare, schools and criminal justice.
As part of the Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan, we committed £66.3 million to scale up hotspot enforcement. From April 2024, hotspot response will be rolled out across every police force area in England and Wales, which will see thousands of additional high visibility patrols in the places most affected by Serious Violence and Anti-Social Behaviour.
An independent evaluation found that in 2022/23, VRUs and hotspot policing prevented 3,220 hospital admissions from violent injury – a statistically significant drop. Please find a link to the evaluation here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/violence-reduction-units-year-ending-march-2023-evaluation-report/violence-reduction-units-2022-to-2023#:~:text=In%202022%2C%20a%20further%202,data%20sharing%20and%20analysis.
On increasing the capacity of children’s homes, the Government announced £165 million of funding over the next 4 years to reduce the reliance of local authorities on costly emergency provision.
Finally, the building of 15 new special free schools through £105 million of investment over the next 4 years will deliver over 2,000 additional special places for children with special education needs and disabilities.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the return on investment criteria are for prioritising proposals in the next Spending Review.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
At the Spring Budget, the Chancellor announced that the Treasury will put in place a robust and comprehensive strategy for improving public sector productivity at the next Spending Review, putting these improvements at the heart of departmental settlements.
As the Chancellor set out, building on work to date and the £4.2 billion of funding announced at the Budget, relevant departments will develop detailed productivity plans over the coming months ahead of the next Spending Review.
Further decisions will be taken at the Spending Review.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of her policies on social care on (a) staff recruitment and retention and (b) service user outcomes.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Preliminary findings for the Department's workforce reform programme have indicated that workers with multiple positive employment factors, including increasing access to training and qualifications, were more likely to stay in employment. Planned evaluation of the reforms will aim to measure the impact on intention to leave, and actual turnover, along with other outcomes.
We anticipate benefits from the workforce reform programme will include a reduction in staff turnover, improved quality of care from a better trained and more stable workforce, increased workforce productivity, and an increase in efficiency savings for social care providers as they reduce the amount of retraining and recruitment needed. These all contribute to our wider goals of improvements in the quality-of-care provision and improved access to care.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce delays in the family courts.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
In the Spring Budget, we announced an additional £55 million to improve productivity, support earlier resolution of family disputes and reduce the number of cases coming to court. This includes creating a digital advice tool for separating couples, piloting early legal advice and supporting the expansion of the private law Pathfinder model.
We are also investing up to £23.6 million in the family mediation voucher scheme, which we intend will allow for its continuation up to March 2025. As of March 2024, over 26,000 families have successfully used the scheme to attempt to resolve their private law disputes outside of court.
In addition, we are working with the Department for Education and other partners on the Family Justice Board to tackle the longest running cases and increase the proportion of public law proceedings that conclude within the 26-week timeline. The Department for Education is also investing an extra £10 million to deliver new initiatives to address the longest delays in public law.