Written questions by Thomas.

Media and Sport, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of financial support for parish choristers.

The Government supports the arts sector, including choirs and singing, through its arm’s-length body, Arts Council England (ACE). For the 2024/25 financial year, ACE has allocated £1.83 million in National Lottery Project Grants to projects classified under 'Choral,' which includes support for parish choirs.Furthermore, while not exclusively for choirs, the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme offers financial assistance for essential maintenance or works to listed church buildings that may affect the music programme (e.g. repairing an organ). This scheme helps cover the costs and associated VAT for such works.Additional funding opportunities are available from charities such as the Cathedral Music Trust, The Royal School of Church Music, and The Ouseley Church Music Trust.

Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to tackle monopolistic practices amongst broadband providers.

As the independent regulator for telecommunications, Ofcom is responsible for regulating the telecoms sector with a duty to further the interests of citizens and consumers, where appropriate by promoting competition.Where Ofcom determines a provider has significant market power (SMP) in a market, it can impose remedies as appropriate. In the wholesale fixed telecoms market, BT and KCOM were found to have SMP and a range of pricing and non-pricing remedies were imposed on the firms to promote network competition. Ofcom is in the process of updating its decisions through its Telecoms Access Review. Ofcom has not found any firm to have SMP in the retail telecoms sector.In July, DSIT published a consultation on the draft Statement of Strategic Priorities for telecommunications, the management of radio spectrum, and postal services. The draft Statement sets out the government’s view on the importance of competition to support broadband deployment across the UK. We are currently reviewing responses to the consultation and will publish our response in due course.

Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to prevent the monopolisation of broadband provision in developments where the broadband provider is owned by the property developer.

Ofcom is responsible for regulating the telecoms sector, and it has a duty to further the interests of citizens and consumers, where appropriate by promoting competition.Developers decide which network operators they would like present in their buildings and negotiate commercial agreements with those operators. Developers are free to approach as many network operators as they wish and to secure multiple connections on a voluntary basis. As regulator for the sector, it is for Ofcom to assess whether there is a competition issue with housing developments and put remedies in place as appropriate.

Innovation and Technology, what recent assessment she has made of effect of the monopolisation of broadband provision on developments where the broadband provider is owned by the property developer.

Ofcom is responsible for regulating the telecoms sector, and it has a duty to further the interests of citizens and consumers, where appropriate by promoting competition.Developers decide which network operators they would like present in their buildings and negotiate commercial agreements with those operators. Developers are free to approach as many network operators as they wish and to secure multiple connections on a voluntary basis. As regulator for the sector, it is for Ofcom to assess whether there is a competition issue with housing developments and put remedies in place as appropriate.

Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to increase support for parish choirs.

The Government supports the arts sector, including choirs and singing, through its arm’s-length body, Arts Council England (ACE). For the 2024/25 financial year, ACE has allocated £1.83 million in National Lottery Project Grants to projects classified under 'Choral,' which includes support for parish choirs.Furthermore, while not exclusively for choirs, the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme offers financial assistance for essential maintenance or works to listed church buildings that may affect the music programme (e.g. repairing an organ). This scheme helps cover the costs and associated VAT for such works.Additional funding opportunities are available from charities such as the Cathedral Music Trust, The Royal School of Church Music, and The Ouseley Church Music Trust.

Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to ensure adequate accountability measures for telecom providers that help facilitate fraud.

Tackling fraud is a priority for the government and we recognise the impact that being a victim of fraud has on people. The Government works closely with Ofcom and industry and recently published the second Telecommunications Fraud Sector Charter – actions in the charter include collaborative data sharing to tackle fraud and raising customer awareness.Ofcom, as the independent regulator for telecoms, is also taking steps to ensure providers are taking the necessary steps to protect consumers from fraud. This includes a current consultation on protecting customers from international numbers which imitate UK mobile numbers.

What recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of levels of responsibility on (a) banks and (b) receiving firms to (i) share information quickly and (ii) freeze funds in cases of fraud.

The Home Office continues to work with financial institutions, regulators, and law enforcement to ensure responsibilities for preventing and responding to fraud are clear and effective.The Payment Services (Amendment) Regulations 2024, effective October 2024, granted banks powers to delay and investigate payments suspected of being fraudulent for up to 72 hours. The change is designed to protect consumers from scams and ensure funds can be frozen before they reach fraudsters.The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA) introduced new provisions, effective January 2024, that allow anti-money laundering (AML) regulated firms to share customer information, provided UK GDPR safeguards are met. These measures aim to create a networked approach to economic crime risk, enabling faster detection and disruption of fraud.The Government is working to develop a strategy for cross-system data sharing that brings benefits for the public and private sector. The strategy will enhance the exploitation of the vast datasets held across ecosystem by using modern technology, bringing together organisations and capabilities to better prevent, detect, and pursue economic crime.

What steps she is taking to help maintain (a) high street banks and (b) other non-digital alternatives to banking.

Banking is changing, with many customers benefitting from the ease and convenience of remote banking. However, Government understands the importance of face-to-face banking to communities and is committed to championing sufficient access for customers. In addition to traditional bank branches, the financial services industry is committed to rolling out 350 banking hubs across the UK by the end of this Parliament. Over 240 hubs have been announced so far, and more than 190 are already open. Government is working closely with industry on this commitment. While decisions on branch provision are commercial decisions for banks themselves, Financial Conduct Authority guidance requires firms to conduct a robust impact analysis. Firms must show they have considered customer needs and identified potential reasonable alternatives. The FCA also expects engagement with stakeholders at least 12 weeks before closure and firms must ensure that any replacement services, such as banking hubs, are in place before a branch closes. These measures aim to ensure closures are implemented fairly and transparently. As well as bank branches, alternative non-digital options to access everyday banking services include telephone banking and the Post Office. The Post Office Banking Framework allows personal and business customers of participating banks to withdraw and deposit cash, check their balance, pay bills and cash cheques at 11,500 Post Office branches across the UK. Beyond branches, banking hubs and Post Office services, some banks also provide points of access through initiatives such as pop-up services in libraries and community centres, or mobile banking vans serving remote areas. The Government supports initiatives which give customers access to in-person banking, as well as digital access.

Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to help reduce public exposure to (a) fraud and (b) scams on social media platforms.

The Online Safety Act (OSA) lists fraud as a priority offence; requiring companies prevent and mitigate scams on their platforms. The OSA also requires large social media companies (‘Category 1’) to have transparent routes for users to complain about fraud, and swift procedures to address those complaints.Ofcom have robust powers to hold companies to account, including issuing fines of up to £18 million or 10% of qualifying global revenue (whichever is higher).The OSA is reducing public exposure to scams, but there is more to do. DSIT is working with the Home Office to deliver a new fraud strategy.

Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department taking to help tackle digital exclusion among elderly people.

We know that digital exclusion is a complex issue and some demographics are more likely to be digitally excluded than others, including older people.That’s why in February; we published the Digital Inclusion Action Plan which outlines the immediate actions we are taking on digital inclusion. One of these actions was to launch the £9.5mn Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund to support and expand local community initiatives to get people online, which we did in August. All funded projects will support at least one of the focus demographic groups, which includes older people.

What steps she is taking to support victims of fraud.

Tackling the threat of fraud and supporting victims is a top priority for this government.Reimbursement to victims remains an important way of mitigating the impact of fraud and incentivising industry to tackle the threat. The government and relevant regulators are continuously monitoring and reviewing the reimbursement regime to ensure its efficacy. More broadly, whilst reimbursement falls to payment service providers, we have used voluntary measures to work faster with tech companies to make sure their resources are deployed where the biggest difference will be made to disrupt fraud. This is in addition to underpinning telecommunications and online regulation enforced by Ofcom.The government also recognises that the impact of fraud goes beyond financial losses, as victims can suffer serious financial and emotional harm. That is why we have taken various steps to improve the victim support system. This includes rolling out the National Economic Crime Victim Care unit to all police forces in England and Wales and improving the service victims receive. A revised fraud strategy will be produced in early 2026.

Whether she has had discussions with Cabinet colleagues on the potential merits of introducing increased reimbursement requirements for victims of fraud.

Tackling the threat of fraud and supporting victims is a top priority for this government.Reimbursement to victims remains an important way of mitigating the impact of fraud and incentivising industry to tackle the threat. The government and relevant regulators are continuously monitoring and reviewing the reimbursement regime to ensure its efficacy. More broadly, whilst reimbursement falls to payment service providers, we have used voluntary measures to work faster with tech companies to make sure their resources are deployed where the biggest difference will be made to disrupt fraud. This is in addition to underpinning telecommunications and online regulation enforced by Ofcom.The government also recognises that the impact of fraud goes beyond financial losses, as victims can suffer serious financial and emotional harm. That is why we have taken various steps to improve the victim support system. This includes rolling out the National Economic Crime Victim Care unit to all police forces in England and Wales and improving the service victims receive. A revised fraud strategy will be produced in early 2026.

Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on raising the cap for 100% Agricultural Property Relief to £5 million.

The Secretary of State has regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues on a range of issues, Cabinet discussions are considered confidential.

Food and Rural Affairs, what does she plan to set the spending cap at for the relaunched 2026 Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme.

Defra is working closely with farmers and industry stakeholders to design a future Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer that will better target the SFI in an orderly way towards our priorities for food, farming and nature. Information and plans for the next iteration of the scheme will be published in due course.

Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on the potential merits of introducing overproduction czars at the local government level that would (a) assess local overproduction of produce and (b) offer it to hospitals and schools.

Both the Secretary of State and the food minister meet routinely with Parliamentary colleagues and key food organisations to discuss matters relating to the sector. The Government is taking action to deliver effective management of food production, and we recognise the environmental, economic and social benefits of redistributing surplus food to organisations who can use it. Defra funds and engages a working group of industry and redistribution sector organisations to develop best practice on how to redistribute surplus food quickly and safely, and through our new £15 million farm surplus fund we are working with food producers and charities to ensure more produce gets to those who need it most. The total amount of surplus food redistributed in the UK in 2023 was 191,000 tonnes, this equates to nearly 456 million meals with a value of around £764 million.

Food and Rural Affairs, when her Department plans to announce the opening of applications for the relaunched 2026 Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme.

Defra is working closely with farmers and industry stakeholders to design a future Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer that will better target the SFI in an orderly way towards our priorities for food, farming and nature. Information and plans for the next iteration of the scheme will be published in due course.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the Autumn Budget 2024 on the (a) physical and (b) mental health of (i) farmers and (ii) the agricultural sector.

We regularly liaise with farming welfare charities and industry stakeholder groups to understand the issues affecting farmers mental health and any impacts resulting from poor mental health. Since 2024, Defra has funded the Farmer Welfare Grant, which supports projects that improve the mental health and wellbeing of farming people in England. The projects are all designed to offer tailored support to farmers and their families as well as prevent further cases of poor mental health by helping to build resilience within farming communities.

What steps her Department is taking to improve early intervention for dyslexic learners.

I refer the hon. Member for Tewkesbury to the answer of 1 December to Question 85049.

Which 20 companies made the largest tax contributions to the Exchequer in the 2024-25 financial year.

HM Revenue and Customs are unable to disclose which 20 companies made the largest tax contributions to the Exchequer in the 2024-25 financial year. To do so would be a breach of HM Revenue and Customs’ duty of taxpayer confidentiality.

Whether he is taking steps to ensure accountability for the equitable provision of palliative care.

Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications. The statutory guidance states that ICBs must work to ensure that there is sufficient provision of care services to meet the needs of their local populations. NHS England has also developed a palliative care and end of life care dashboard, which brings together all relevant local data in one place. The dashboard helps commissioners understand the palliative care and end of life care needs of their local population, enabling ICBs to put plans in place to address and track the improvement of health inequalities, and ensure that funding is distributed fairly, based on prevalence. The Department and NHS England are currently looking at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all-age palliative care and end of life care in line with the 10-Year Health Plan.We will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services to ensure that services reduce variation in access and quality, although some variation may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.Additionally, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research, the Department is investing £3 million in a new Policy Research Unit in Palliative and End of Life Care. This unit launched in January 2024 and is building the evidence base on palliative care and end of life care, with a specific focus on inequalities.On ICB accountability, NHS England has a legal duty to annually assess the performance of each ICB in respect of each financial year and to publish a summary of its findings. This assessment must assess how well the ICB has discharged its functions.