Written questions by Stephenson.

Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential contribution of the GREAT Britain and Northern Ireland programme to the economy.

The GREAT Britain and Northern Ireland campaign has played and continues to play an important role in promoting the UK as a top global destination and supporting growth in the visitor economy. While decisions around the overall GREAT programme budget sit with the Cabinet Office, DCMS continues to work closely with the Minister for the Cabinet Office and other relevant departments to ensure that tourism remains a core focus of the campaign. Discussions are ongoing on how to maximise impact within available resources. We remain committed to working with VisitBritain and the wider sector to support the UK’s international tourism recovery, grow the visitor economy, and deliver on our ambition to attract 50 million inbound visitors by 2030.

Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the proposed reduction in funding for the GREAT Britain and Northern Ireland programme on VisitBritain.

The GREAT Britain and Northern Ireland campaign has played and continues to play an important role in promoting the UK as a top global destination and supporting growth in the visitor economy. While decisions around the overall GREAT programme budget sit with the Cabinet Office, DCMS continues to work closely with the Minister for the Cabinet Office and other relevant departments to ensure that tourism remains a core focus of the campaign. Discussions are ongoing on how to maximise impact within available resources. We remain committed to working with VisitBritain and the wider sector to support the UK’s international tourism recovery, grow the visitor economy, and deliver on our ambition to attract 50 million inbound visitors by 2030.

Media and Sport, what (a) financial and (b) other support her Department provides to (i) zoos and (ii) aquariums.

The government acknowledges the significant impact that zoos and aquariums have on the Visitor Economy. Iconic and cultural attractions like Chester zoo, which was the third most visited paid attraction in England in 2023, draw in visitors from across the country and beyond, play a significant role in attracting families, supporting local tourism, and contributing to conservation efforts.While policy responsibility for the welfare and management of animals kept by zoos and aquariums, as well as the conservation work zoos and aquariums are required to undertake, sits with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), we remain engaged on cross-cutting matters where relevant to the UK’s visitor economy. Rather than moving things between departments, we believe it is better to get departments to work together.This includes ensuring the UK’s diverse visitor offer is promoted effectively through national tourism bodies, including VisitEngland and VisitBritain.Similarly, aquariums such as the 14 Sea Life Centres across the UK, including prominent sites in Blackpool and Scarborough, attract thousands of visitors to rural and coastal areas each year. The Sea Life Center London alone welcomes around 1 million visitors annually and serves as a key attraction for visitors.

Whether she will take steps to amend Gift Aid regulations to allow charitable (a) zoos and (b) aquariums to claim on the price of admission.

The Government recognises the important work the charity sector does in the UK, which is why we currently provide tax reliefs to charities and their donors worth over £6 billion per year, including over £1.6 billion in Gift Aid.Gift Aid is intended to be claimed only on freely given donations rather than on payments for goods or services such as admission fees. This is why charitable zoos or aquariums may not claim gift aid on the price of a single admission. However, they can claim gift aid on donations that go beyond the 'goods and services' element of a single admission and are given freely to support the charity's purpose. Such charities may claim Gift Aid on the sale of a ticket where either: the ticket gives the buyer access to view charity property (which by definition includes plants and animals) for a full year; or the buyer pays a freely given 10% Gift Aid ‘premium’ on top of the standard admission price.

Pursuant to the Answer of 13 March 2025 to Question 35858 on Banks: closures, whether she has had discussions with retail banks on keeping high street bank branches open since 5 July 2024.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer meets regularly with all major banks to discuss a wide variety of topics. Banking has changed significantly in recent years with many customers benefiting from the ease and convenience of remote banking. While branch closures are commercial decisions for banks, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) guidance expects firms to carefully consider the impact of planned branch closures on their customers’ everyday banking and cash access needs and put in place alternatives where reasonable. This seeks to ensure that branch closures are implemented in a way that treats customers fairly. The Government understands the importance of face-to-face banking to communities and high streets across the UK, and is committed to championing sufficient access for all as a priority. This is why the Government is working closely with industry to roll out 350 banking hubs across the UK. The UK banking sector has committed to deliver these hubs by the end of this Parliament. Over 220 hubs have been announced so far, and over 140 are already open.

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 20 March 2025 to Question 38205 on Tree Planting: Bedfordshire, if he will publish county level statistics.

The Government has no plans to publish county level statistics.

What steps he is taking to help support women with endometriosis in Mid Bedfordshire constituency.

The Government is committed to prioritising women’s health and improving the care received by those suffering from gynaecological conditions, including endometriosis.We encourage any woman or girl with symptoms of endometriosis to contact their general practice (GP). In Central Bedfordshire, GPs have been participating in education sessions over the last year focused on periods and endometriosis, to help improve care and treatment. This includes reviewing the updated National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance which recommends giving a likely diagnosis of endometriosis, after careful assessment, and initiating treatment with options including hormonal contraceptive methods if needed. This can take place in parallel with a referral to the specialist service.The Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board also commissions a specialist endometriosis service which is provided by a multidisciplinary team of gynaecologists, a nurse specialist, laparoscopic bowel surgeons, urologists, radiologist, and the pain team. For Central Bedfordshire residents, this is provided by the Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and a referral by a GP or sexual health doctor is required. The service was recently accredited for 2025 as a British Society of Gynaecology Endoscopy Endometriosis Centre.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 24 March 2025 to Question 38447 on Environmental Delivery Plans, whether uncompleted conservation projects will lapse at the end of the Environmental Delivery Plan period.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 38477 on 24 March 2025.

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 20 March 2025 to Question 38205 on Tree Planting: Bedfordshire, what the range of sensitives are.

The Forestry Commission provides guidance on the common constraints and designations that might be relevant to tree planning – this is available at Forestry project checks: constraints - GOV.UK.

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 19 March 2025 to Question 35439 on Forests and Rivers: Access, what plans he has considered for other national forests.

Defra launched the Western Forest on 21 March 2025 and is considering its approach to the creation of further national forests.

Pursuant to the Answer of 18 March 2025 to Question 36504 on Mental Health Services: Children, how many of the 8,500 additional mental health workers will be based in Bedfordshire.

We are working with NHS England to consider options to deliver this commitment alongside the refresh of the Long Term Workforce Plan.

What steps he is taking to help reduce times for the diagnosis of endometriosis.

The Government is committed to prioritising women’s health, and we are making progress in ensuring that women with endometriosis receive timely and effective treatment.Clinical guidelines support healthcare professionals to diagnose and treat conditions. In November 2024 the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence updated its guideline on the diagnosis and management of endometriosis. This includes updated recommendations that, for women with symptoms of endometriosis, initial pharmacological treatment should take place in primary care, and that this can take place in parallel with additional investigations and referral to secondary care if needed. This will help women receive more timely treatment. The guideline is available at the following link:https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng73We have taken urgent action to tackle gynaecology waiting lists through the Elective Reform Plan. In gynaecology, the plan supports innovative models offering patients care closer to home, as well as the piloting of gynaecology pathways in community diagnostic centres. Alongside the plan, we published a new partnership agreement between the NHS and the independent sector, which will help cut gynaecology waiting lists faster.Additionally, to provide quicker access for patients to common surgical hub procedures such as a laparoscopy, which can be used to diagnose and treat endometriosis, we have committed to opening 17 new and expanded surgical hubs by June 2025, and ramping up the number of hubs over the next three years.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 20 March 2025 to Question 37781 on Voting Rights: Young People, whether her Department plans to instruct the Boundary Commissions to perform an early boundary review of Parliamentary Constituencies to ensure electoral equality at the General Election 2029 with the addition of voters aged 16 and 17.

The Government has no plans to amend the timing of the next Parliamentary Boundary Review.

Pursuant to the Answer of 13 February 2025 to Question 29188 on Agriculture and Business: Inheritance Tax, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of reviewing her Department's data collection methods to enable the collection of data on the number of estates containing woodlands impacted in the 2026-27 financial year.

HMRC guidance sets out that woodland is only agricultural property, and therefore qualifies for agricultural property relief, if it is occupied with, and that occupation is ancillary to, agricultural land or pasture. It will include woodland shelter belts, game coverts, fox coverts, coppices grown for fencing materials and clumps of amenity trees or spinneys. Woodlands occupied for purposes that are not agricultural, such as amenity woodland or woodland used for the production of commercial timber, are not agricultural property. However, they may be eligible for woodlands relief or business property relief. Executors must include the value of any timber and woodland owned by the deceased that is not part of a farm in box 69 of the IHT400 form, alongside the value of the deceased’s other interests in any business or partnership (which may or may not be related to woodlands). Some farms may also include coppices, small woods and belts of trees that shelter the land, and the value of these should be included in the value of any farm, farmhouses and farmland owned by the deceased in box 68 of the IHT400 form. However, as stated in our answer to UIN 29188, while estates include supporting documentation about the type of assets on which they claim agricultural and business property reliefs when submitting their claims, only the value of eligible assets is digitally captured in a format available for further analysis. It is also combined with the value of other assets in the boxes mentioned above, and these may or may not be related to woodlands. As such, any further level of detail is not readily available from historic claims to estimate how many future estates might contain woodland. It would be disproportionately costly for HMRC to manually review historic claims to digitally capture this information. As detailed in my recent letter to the Chair of the Northern Ireland Select Committee, Inheritance Tax is currently operated by HMRC using a predominantly paper-based system. As part of my work to modernise HMRC, we plan to move to a digital system.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to her Department's publication entitled Employer National Insurance Contributions Grant – Explanatory Note, published on 3 February 2025, which councils were invited to submit their estimates of 2023-24 expenditure.

When determining allocations for the 2024-25 Employer National Insurance Contributions grant, government lacked the relevant, published Revenue Outturn (RO) data for a small number of councils, and we have therefore used councils’ self-submitted expenditure data for 2023-24 where there were gaps. The relevant list of councils with published RO data for 2023-24 is available here.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of the provisions outlined in his Department's press release entitled Crack teams get patients off waiting lists at twice the speed, published on 16 March 2025, on people in Bedfordshire.

The Government is committed to putting patients first, and we have wasted no time in getting to work cutting National Health Service waiting lists and ensuring people have the best possible experience during their care.Further Faster 20 (FF20) is a scheme to tackle waiting lists through targeted support to improve and streamline pathways for patients at 20 trusts in areas with high levels of economic inactivity. The latest data from October 2024 to January 2025 shows that waiting lists in areas with an FF20 trust have, on average, been reduced at more than double the rate of the rest of the country, falling 130% faster in areas where the Government’s scheme is in action, compared to the national average. A total of 37,000 cases have been removed from waiting lists in those 20 areas, averaging almost 2,000 patients per local trust. Following the success of the programme, the Government has confirmed that this initiative will be rolled out to additional providers this year, to boost NHS productivity and cut waiting times.The Bedfordshire Hospital NHS Foundation Trust was not one of the 20 trusts targeted through the FF20 scheme, though the trust may access the resources of the wider Further Faster programme, which was rolled out to all trusts in March 2024.

Communities and Local Government, if she will make an estimate of the number of (a) parish, (b) town and (c) community councils which will pay additional employers’ National Insurance in 2025-26.

The government recognises the important role town and parish councils have in improving the quality of life and wellbeing of their communities but has no direct role in funding parish and town councils, and therefore has not provided compensation, consistent with the approach taken by the previous government. We recognise that the increase in the rate of employers’ National Insurance Contributions (NICs) will lead to increased costs for some parish councils, which may require them to increase their precept. We recognise that decisions to increase precepts are not taken lightly by parish councils.

Pursuant to the Answer of 13 March 2025 to Question 35853 on Govia Thameslink Railway: Fares, if she will make an estimate of the first year in which rail fares will go down under Great British Railways.

We are committed to the biggest overhaul of our railways in a generation, delivering a range of improvements, from more reliable services to simpler ticketing. Through public ownership and the transition to Great British Railways, it is also our ambition to deliver a more affordable railway. Post-pandemic, the amount of taxpayer subsidy provided to the railway industry has increased from under a quarter in 2018/19 to over half of total income in 2022/23. A proportionate, annual increase in fares is necessary to support crucial investment and to ensure the long-term financial sustainability of the railway.Our goal is to keep the price of rail travel at a point that works for both passengers and taxpayers, where possible, while ensuring the long-term financial sustainability of the railway.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 24 March to Question 38446 on Environmental Delivery Plans, whether Natural England will be required to pay for ongoing maintenance of conservation projects.

Natural England will secure and deliver conservation measures as part of an Environmental Delivery Plan to address the environmental impact of the development in question. Conservation measures will be maintained for as long as is necessary to address the relevant development impact, funded by the levy. In some cases, this may mean funding and securing measures for several decades or permanently.

If he will make an assessment of the potential impact of closing NHS England on integrated care boards.

Ministers and senior Department officials will work with the new executive team at the top of NHS England, led by Sir Jim Mackey, to jointly lead this transformation. As we work to bring the two organisations together, we will ensure that we continue to evaluate impacts of all kinds.As part of the necessary changes to support the National Health Service to recover, NHS England has also indicated that integrated care boards (ICBs) should reduce in size. We will work with the NHS to get it back on its feet and make it fit for the future.In a letter from Sir Jim Mackey on 1 April 2025, NHS England published further detail on the future of ICBs in a letter issued to all ICBs and NHS trusts and foundation trusts. This letter is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/working-together-in-2025-26-to-lay-the-foundations-for-reform/