Baroness McIntosh of Pickering

The report on the last statutory review of the Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA), which was published in July 2023 concluded that a decision by the GCA to launch an investigation should be based upon some evidence or intelligence of non-compliance. The government will conduct the next statutory review of the GCA next year and all interested parties will have an opportunity to contribute their views.

‘Fair Dealings’ Regulations under the Agriculture Act 2020, including those which have already been introduced to cover the UK dairy sector, will be enforced by the Agricultural Supply Chain Adjudicator.

Our Government’s Clean Energy Superpower Mission is to accelerate to net zero and deliver Clean Power by 2030 alongside our commitment to restoring nature. This includes through delivering the Environment Act targets in England and honouring our international commitments under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD). In making Britain a clean energy superpower, we will ensure that a reformed planning system works for nature through measures such as the new Nature Restoration Fund and the Marine Recovery Fund (MRF) for Offshore Wind.

In November Energy UK, in collaboration with the Government, published a Winter 2024 Commitment for this winter which promises £500m of industry support to billpayers this winter. It also outlines how fifteen energy suppliers representing almost the entire market will continue to provide a range of financial support tailored to the needs of their customers. Together with our Warm Home Discount, eligible households who are struggling to pay their energy bills this winter will receive £1 billion of support.

We will continue to provide substantial funding to Local Authorities to support those most in need. At the Autumn Budget 2024, the Government announced that £1 billion, including Barnett impact, will be invested to extend the Household Support Fund (HSF) in England by a full year until 31 March 2026, and to maintain Discretionary Housing Payments in England and Wales.

The Warm Home Discount provides eligible low-income households across Great Britain with a £150 rebate off their winter energy bill and is expected to support over three million households this winter. There are currently no plans to increase the rate of the Warm Home Discount.

This is a very important issue which the government has been closely engaged with since it took office. It is important to note that landlines are not being withdrawn, but their underlying technology is being moved from Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

The switchover is an industry led programme. The Government is determined to ensure that any and all risks of the industry-led migration from PSTN to VoIP are mitigated. Communication providers and network operators signed voluntary charters in December 2023 and March 2024, ensuring their commitment to protect vulnerable consumers during the PSTN migration. On 18 November 2024, the major communication providers agreed to adhere to further safeguards set out in the non-voluntary migrations checklist before restarting non-voluntary migration of customers from PSTN to VoIP.

Having the opportunity to study a modern foreign language should be part of the broad and rich education that every child in this country deserves.

Languages provide an insight into other cultures and can open the door to travel and employment opportunities. They also broaden pupils’ horizons, helping them flourish in new environments.

The government is committed to providing enriching opportunities for students and young people to experience other countries and cultures, including through school trips and exchanges. We also recognise the difficulties that schools have faced in recent years when it comes to organising visits. The UK has agreed measures with France which make school trip travel between the UK and France easier.

The Turing Scheme is the UK government’s global programme for students to study and work abroad. Students can develop new skills, including language skills, gain international experience and boost their employability. The scheme has been helping tens of thousands of UK students to study and work abroad for four years and we have recently announced that the scheme will be running for a fifth year.

The UK has a bilateral student exchange programme with Germany, the UK German Connection (UKGC), which provides opportunities for children, young people, and a limited number of language teachers in the UK and Germany to engage in a range of activities, including seminars, exchanges, visits and study courses. UKGC seeks to support current German learners in the UK and encourage more to learn the language.

The department also has a long-standing Language Assistants Programme, delivered by the British Council, to improve modern foreign language skills through direct interaction with native speakers from around the world. This includes arranging placements in the UK for non-UK residents to assist with teaching French, Spanish, Mandarin, German and Italian (as Modern Language Assistants). In the 2024/25 academic year, there are 700 Modern Language Assistants allocated to UK schools.

Defra is confident that existing and new BCP infrastructure has sufficient capacity and capability to handle the volume of expected checks outlined in the Border Target Operating Model, with robust, dynamic, and effective operational measures ready to call upon if needed. Defra will continue to work with existing BCP operators to ensure they remain operational

It is worth noting that commercial ports are responsible for determining and setting their own rates for recovering costs at their facilities.

My department welcomes the Office for Environmental Protection’s report reviewing “Progress in improving the natural environment in England 2023/2024”. We will respond in full to this report in due course.

The Residual Waste Infrastructure Capacity Note assesses our residual waste treatment capacity need to 2035, as well as giving consideration to the long-term residual waste reduction target. The Capacity Note shows that, as of 2022-23, there were certain areas in England where significant volumes of non-recyclable household waste are sent to landfill. There is also a need to divert non-household wastes away from landfill.

The Capacity Note was published which set out that the Government will only back new energy from waste projects that meet strict conditions. Proposals for new facilities will have to demonstrate a clearly defined domestic residual waste treatment capacity need to facilitate the diversion of residual waste away from landfill, or enable the replacement of older, less-efficient facilities. Additionally, new facilities will have to maximise efficiency and support the delivery of economic growth, net zero and the move to a circular economy.

The Government encourages those developing energy from waste facilities (at all stages in the process) to consider forecast changes to future capacity, demand, and the Government’s circular economy opportunities, in light of the evidence published in the Capacity Note.

The occupier of a property has a legal responsibility to pay the water bill of that property. Water sector bad debt is money owed to water companies which customers are failing to pay off.

This Government expects all water companies to proactively engage with supporting their customers and to put robust support in place to help customers make payments on any outstanding debt.

Between 2019 and 2024 bad debt cost the sector £2.205 billion. Under Ofwat’s PR24 Final Determinations, companies have committed to contributing £197 million of funding to reduce the number of households in debt.

The Environment Agency plan to carry out dredging on 147 miles (236km) of watercourses for which they are responsible in 2024/25. Figures can be subject to change based on in-year inspections and the potential to have a requirement to redistribute resources to incident response and recovery.

The Department monitors how the e-scooter trials are running on a continuing basis to ensure they are operating safely and developing the evidence base that will inform our future decisions on e-scooters.

A second national evaluation of e-scooter trials will start early this year. This will look to understand what journeys are being replaced by e-scooter journeys and how they integrate with public transport; their safety for users and for others; and examine accessibility impacts of e-scooters. It will also explore changing travel patterns since the coronavirus pandemic, when the trials were initially set up, and as e-scooters have become more embedded in public life.

This Government takes road safety seriously, and we are committed to reducing the numbers of those killed and injured on our roads. We are currently considering policy options in this area.

The Government understands the need to resolve the longstanding question of regulating micromobility devices such as e-scooters. We are carefully considering next steps on this.

As part of policy development, we are working with local authorities and industry through our e-scooter trials to inform options for future regulation. Any option requiring users of private e-scooters to have insurance will require careful consideration. No decisions have been made on the future regulation of e-scooters and the Government will consult before any regulations come into force.

Railway 200 is a partner led initiative to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the modern railway. Network Rail are leading the initiative in partnership with industry, Government and a wide range of other partners including the Heritage Railway Association. Many heritage railways are playing an active part with events planned throughout the year and advertised on the Railway 200 website under the Railway 200 banner.

The programme is encouraging all heritage railways across the country to join the celebrations with a ‘whistle off’ at midday on 1 January 2025 and Visit Britain are a key partner, encouraging more tourists to visit events throughout the year.

This government is carefully reviewing the position it has inherited on HS2 and wider rail infrastructure and will set out detailed plans in due course. These will include our plans for a disposal programme for land and property acquired for HS2 that is no longer required.

Where any land and property asset has been acquired compulsorily, or via statutory blight and is no longer required, then it will be sold subject to the Crichel Down Rules. These require government departments, under certain circumstances, to offer back surplus land to the former owner or the former owner’s successors at the current market value.

In the majority of cases, where agricultural land acquired for HS2 is not required operationally, former owners are offered the opportunity to continue to use and farm the land. This is documented by way of either a licence or Farm Business Tenancy depending on the circumstances and proposed use of the land.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Great Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety; this includes workplace health and safety risks created in agriculture, including poultry farming.

The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH) is the main piece of health and safety legislation that sets out what dutyholders must do to control exposure to substances in the workplace that can cause ill health; including zoonotic diseases such as avian flu. General guidance on how to comply with legal duties under COSHH is freely available on HSE’s website at https://www.hse.gov.uk/coshh/.

More specific guidance for dutyholders, specifically on measures that they should consider when deciding how to best control workplace risk from avian flu, is also freely available on HSE’s website. The guidance (below) covers information on avian flu, how it is transmitted, the precautions to keep people safe and well, as well as links to information and guidance from other organisations such as the UK Health Security Agency and the National Health Service:

• https://www.hse.gov.uk/agriculture/zoonoses-data-sheets/avian-influenza.htm
• https://www.hse.gov.uk/biosafety/diseases/avianflu.htm
• https://www.hse.gov.uk/biosafety/assets/docs/aisuspected.pdf

HSE also produce guidance which sets out biosecurity measures to be taken by its staff who may in the course of their work be required to visit farms, including poultry farms. The guidance is also freely available from HSE’s website:

• https://www.hse.gov.uk/foi/internalops/sims/ag_food/1_10_02/index.htm.

General practices (GPs) and primary care have been receiving a smaller proportion of National Health Service resources, and we’re committed to reversing that and shifting the focus of care out of hospitals and into the community. Additionally, we acknowledge the pressing challenge of ensuring that rural areas have the resources to continue serving their patients.

We have already invested £82 million to recruit 1,000 newly qualified GPs to combat this, and our 10-Year Health Plan will outline steps to shift care from hospitals back to the community and to a Neighbourhood Health Service, which will bring together vital health and care services, ensuring healthcare is closer to home. We will also train more doctors to increase capacity and take the pressure of people currently working in the system.

There were discussions between the UK and Denmark about Greenland's status in the early 20th Century, but our position remains that Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark and that the future of their constitutional arrangements is a matter for the people and government of Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark as the Foreign Secretary and the Minister of State, Stephen Doughty, have repeatedly and publicly made clear.

The Government has no plans introduce a zero rate of VAT for church repairs and renovation.

VAT is a broad-based tax on consumption and the 20 per cent standard rate applies to most goods and services. VAT is the UK’s second largest tax forecast to raise £171 billion in 2024/25. Taxation is a vital source of revenue that helps to fund vital public services.

Evidence suggests that businesses only partially pass on any savings from lower VAT rates. In some cases, reliefs do not represent good value for money, as there is no guarantee that savings will be passed on to consumers.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport administer the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme. This provides grants towards VAT paid on repairs and maintenance to the nation's listed places of worship.

The Government keeps all tax policy under review, and any decisions on tax policy will be announced at fiscal events in the context of the overall public finances.

The Government has published information about the reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief at www.gov.uk/government/publications/agricultural-property-relief-and-business-property-relief-reforms, and further explanatory information at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/what-are-the-changes-to-agricultural-property-relief.

In accordance with standard practice, a tax information and impact note will be published alongside the draft legislation before the relevant Finance Bill.

Rural crime can have devastating consequences for rural communities. That is why this Government is committed to reducing crime and disorder in rural areas. Under our reforms, rural communities will be safeguarded, with tougher measures to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, strengthened neighbourhood policing and stronger measures to prevent farm theft and fly-tipping.

The Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee will deliver 13,000 neighbourhood police and community support officers, across England and Wales, including in rural areas, to speed up response times and build public confidence.

It is for Chief Constables and PCCs, as operationally independent leaders and elected local representatives, to decide how best to deploy resources to manage and respond to individual crimes and local crime priorities, including rural crime. The National Rural Crime Unit provides police forces across the UK with specialist operational support in their responses to rural crime.

I refer the noble lady to the answer given to Question UIN 20652 on 27 December 2024 and the answer to Question UIN 22380 on 15 January 2025.

The National Planning Policy Framework clearly sets out that inappropriate development in areas at risk of flooding should be avoided by directing development away from areas at highest risk, including floodplains. The approach to planning for flood risk is already clear that new housing and most other forms of development are not appropriate in a functional floodplain (Flood Zone 3b), where water has to flow or be stored in times of flood.