Written questions by Dewhirst.

Food and Rural Affairs, if she will place in the Library Defra-held correspondence and assessments supporting the evidential basis that NEER155 underwent rigorous peer review.

The redactions made to Natural England’s response to EIR2026/00223, were applied because the material contained third-party personal data, which is exempt from disclosure under the Environmental Information Regulations. In addition, some material was outside the scope of the requestor’s EIR enquiry and was removed on that basis. The Department does not consider it necessary to place the requested documents in the Library. The NEER155 evidence review was carried out by Natural England, the Government’s statutory adviser on nature. As the statutory adviser responsible for the review, the tasks associated with carrying out that review including the peer review element were matters for Natural England. NEER155 built on Natural England’s 2013 review (NEER004) by incorporating 102 new studies on the effects of burning on peatlands. The external peer reviewers for NEER155 were leading peatland experts at major universities and other expert institutions.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the peer review for the Natural England Evidence Review with reference NEER155.

The redactions made to Natural England’s response to EIR2026/00223, were applied because the material contained third-party personal data, which is exempt from disclosure under the Environmental Information Regulations. In addition, some material was outside the scope of the requestor’s EIR enquiry and was removed on that basis. The Department does not consider it necessary to place the requested documents in the Library. The NEER155 evidence review was carried out by Natural England, the Government’s statutory adviser on nature. As the statutory adviser responsible for the review, the tasks associated with carrying out that review including the peer review element were matters for Natural England. NEER155 built on Natural England’s 2013 review (NEER004) by incorporating 102 new studies on the effects of burning on peatlands. The external peer reviewers for NEER155 were leading peatland experts at major universities and other expert institutions.

Food and Rural Affairs, if she will meet with manufacturers from the heating, refrigeration and air conditioning industries to discuss mandatory training on flammable refrigerants as part of the GB F Gas consultation process.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 10 February 2026 to the honourable Member for Bridlington and The Wolds in PQ UIN 111494.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the necessary safety measures required for the transition to alternative refrigerants with flammability or toxicity characteristics.

I refer the honourable Member to the answer given on 10 February to the honourable Member for Newbury, PQs 111542 and 111543.

Whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of changes to Venture Capital Trust tax relief and lifetime investment limits on investment in qualifying companies.

At Budget, the government announced a comprehensive package of entrepreneurship tax measures designed to provide substantially enhanced support for scaling businesses across the UK. This includes doubling the maximum amount that a company can raise through the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and the Venture Capital Trust (VCT) scheme. These increases are expected to lead to around £100 million per year of extra investment into the most successful scaling companies, supporting their further growth and development. The Government recognises that there may be other ways we could support companies to scale in the UK. We have therefore launched a Call for Evidence on tax policy support to gather views and evidence from founders, entrepreneurs, scaling companies and investors. This will assess the impact, accessibility, and generosity of existing schemes, and explore potential policy options to go-further. A Tax Information and Impact Note published at Budget outlines the policy rationale and expected impacts of these measures. It can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/enterprise-investment-scheme-eis-and-venture-capital-trusts-vct-changes/venture-capital-trusts-enterprise-investment-scheme-investment-limit-increase-and-restructure The Policy Costings document contains further information on the costing methodology. This can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/692872fd2a37784b16ecf676/Budget_2025-Policy_Costings.pdf

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of reducing upfront VCT income tax relief on (a) future Venture Capital Trust fundraising and (b) investor behaviour across other tax-advantaged investment schemes, including EIS and SEIS.

At Budget, the government announced a comprehensive package of entrepreneurship tax measures designed to provide substantially enhanced support for scaling businesses across the UK. This includes doubling the maximum amount that a company can raise through the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and the Venture Capital Trust (VCT) scheme. These increases are expected to lead to around £100 million per year of extra investment into the most successful scaling companies, supporting their further growth and development. The Government recognises that there may be other ways we could support companies to scale in the UK. We have therefore launched a Call for Evidence on tax policy support to gather views and evidence from founders, entrepreneurs, scaling companies and investors. This will assess the impact, accessibility, and generosity of existing schemes, and explore potential policy options to go-further. A Tax Information and Impact Note published at Budget outlines the policy rationale and expected impacts of these measures. It can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/enterprise-investment-scheme-eis-and-venture-capital-trusts-vct-changes/venture-capital-trusts-enterprise-investment-scheme-investment-limit-increase-and-restructure The Policy Costings document contains further information on the costing methodology. This can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/692872fd2a37784b16ecf676/Budget_2025-Policy_Costings.pdf

Whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of reducing VCT Income Tax relief on the outcomes from doubling the lifetime investment limit for qualifying companies.

At Budget, the government announced a comprehensive package of entrepreneurship tax measures designed to provide substantially enhanced support for scaling businesses across the UK. This includes doubling the maximum amount that a company can raise through the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and the Venture Capital Trust (VCT) scheme. These increases are expected to lead to around £100 million per year of extra investment into the most successful scaling companies, supporting their further growth and development. The Government recognises that there may be other ways we could support companies to scale in the UK. We have therefore launched a Call for Evidence on tax policy support to gather views and evidence from founders, entrepreneurs, scaling companies and investors. This will assess the impact, accessibility, and generosity of existing schemes, and explore potential policy options to go-further. A Tax Information and Impact Note published at Budget outlines the policy rationale and expected impacts of these measures. It can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/enterprise-investment-scheme-eis-and-venture-capital-trusts-vct-changes/venture-capital-trusts-enterprise-investment-scheme-investment-limit-increase-and-restructure The Policy Costings document contains further information on the costing methodology. This can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/692872fd2a37784b16ecf676/Budget_2025-Policy_Costings.pdf

What information her Department holds on seating capacity on all routes operated by London North Eastern Railway in each of the last 12 months, broken down by month.

The Department does not hold information on seating capacity on all routes operated by London North Eastern Railway in each of the last 12 months, broken down by month.

Food and Rural Affairs, if she will meet with manufacturers from the heating, refrigeration and air conditioning industries to discuss mandatory training regarding flammable refrigerants as part of the GB F Gas consultation process.

Defra officials meet regularly with representatives of the heating, refrigeration and air conditioning industries, including to discuss the topic of training regarding flammable refrigerants. They have gathered incredibly useful input through such engagement. They would be open to further meetings on this topic.

Food and Rural Affairs, how many responses her Department received to the consultation entitled Amending the hydrofluorocarbon phasedown schedule.

137 responses to the consultation were received. Defra is currently considering their contents.

Media and Sport, with reference to her Department's press release entitled Game changer for the nation, published on 19 June 2025, how much and what proportion of the funding for new and upgraded grassroots sport facilities will be allocated to support (a) gyms, (b) swimming pools and (c) leisure centres; and what his planned timetable is for the allocation of this funding.

The Government recognises the importance of ensuring public access to grassroots sports facilities, including gyms, pools and leisure centres, which are vital spaces for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy, and which play an important role within communities. The £400 million funding announced last June will support facilities across the country. We will ensure that this funding promotes health and wellbeing, and helps to remove the barriers to physical activity for under-represented groups. We are working with sporting bodies and local leaders to establish what communities need, before setting out further plans on how future funding will be allocated.

Pursuant to the answer of 5 January 2026, to Question 96853, on NHS England: Costs what estimate he has made of the (a) gross and (b) net number of civil servants who will leave the Civil Service due to redundancy.

The Government’s ambition remains to reduce staff numbers by up to 50% across the Department, NHS England, and the integrated care boards, which is the equivalent to up to 18,000 posts, including a number of Civil Servants, through paid exits via voluntary exits and redundancies, natural attrition, and recruitment controls, combined together. These reductions will be made by March 2028. The overall cost of paid exits across organisations is estimated at approximately £1 billion to £1.3 billion. The calculations remain subject to ongoing policy development and refinement, and are also subject to actual take-up of exit schemes and calculated individual costs. Relevant, material financial information relating to this active policy development will be published in due course in line with transparency obligations. The Government remains committed to reducing unnecessary bureaucracy and duplication, to save more than £1 billion a year by the end of Parliament, which will go directly to improving patient outcomes.

With reference to the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for government’s most important contracts, Data for July to September 2025, published on 25 December 2025, what the Key Performance Indicators are for the (a) Digitise Delivery Support contract with DELOITTE MCS LTD and (b) QAT74 End to End Testing contract with LA International Computer Consultants Limited.

For Digitise Delivery Support contract with DELOITTE MCS LTD performance is managed through Balanced score card performance process by the Migration Border Tech Portfolio business. Performance assessed the supplier against themes :- Performance to pay process- Service requests and onboarding- Delivery of the outcome of the various roles; project management, partnering behaviours and value add services and social value.For QAT74 End to End Testing contract with LA International Computer Consultants Limited, the KPIs are :- Partnering Behaviours- Delivery- Value Add

Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the International Journal of Wildland Fire's article entitled Assessing soil heating beneath prescribed burns, published on 15 January 2026.

The date and title of the citation provided does not correspond to any article published by the International Journal of Wildland Fire, but research on this topic is reviewed and taken into account in our policy development.

With reference to the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for government’s most important contracts, Data for July to September 2025, published on 25 December 2025, how customer satisfaction with cultural sensitivity is monitored for the Security Guarding Services contract with MITIE SECURITY LIMITED.

The Security Guarding Services contract KPI relating to cultural sensitivity is a qualitative KPI and is measured through a Customer Satisfaction evaluation survey completed on a quarterly basis. The KPI is monitored and reported through the contract management meetings held with Mitie Security Limited.

Pursuant to the answer of 16 December 2025 to Question 98794 on Mission Boards, who the internal and external members are of the Safer Streets Mission Board.

The Safer Streets Mission Board is chaired by the Home Secretary. Ministers from relevant government departments are invited to attend meetings based on specific discussion topics, as are external experts where necessary.The Mission Board is supported by a monthly Safer Streets Delivery Board, which brings officials from government departments together to drive delivery and outcomes under the Safer Streets Mission. The Delivery Board is chaired by the Director General for the Public Safety Group in the Home Office and is attended by senior officials from relevant government departments.

Whether NHS staff receive employer pension contributions on dates on which they are on strike.

Contributions to the NHS Pension scheme are based on pensionable earnings. If staff participate in strike action and do not receive pay for those days, there is no pensionable pay for that period, so neither employee nor employer contributions are made.

Pursuant to the answer of 16 December 2025 to Question 98794 on Mission Boards, who the internal and external members are of the Clean Energy Superpower Mission Board.

The Clean Energy Superpower Mission Board is chaired by the DESNZ Secretary of State, the Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP. The board does not have a fixed list of internal or external members, rather we engage with other government departments, external organisations and industry experts depending on the issues for discussion.

Pursuant to the answer of 10 September 2025 to Question 74317 on DESNZ: Social Media, which social media influencers have been paid to undertake advertising for his Department since July 2024.

Due to commercial confidentiality, we are unable to release this information.

With reference to the Government's transparency data entitled Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for government’s most important contracts: Data for July to September 2025 for all departments, published on 25 December 2025, for what reason Tackling Economic Inequality is a Key Performance Indicator for the contract entitled NHSmail Collaboration Licensing Platform that is supplied by Accenture (UK) Limited.

The inclusion of Tackling Economic Inequality as a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for NHS England’s NHSmail Collaboration Licensing Platform contract reflects the Government’s Social Value Model, introduced to ensure that public procurement delivers wider economic and social benefits alongside core contractual outcomes. Further information is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-policy-note-0620-taking-account-of-social-value-in-the-award-of-central-government-contractsAs for every procurement, NHS England selected the most appropriate Social Value Theme from those set out in the above guidance, based on the subject matter of the contract. In this case, Tackling Economic Inequality was chosen. This theme encompasses measures that promote economic opportunity, support skills and employment, and encourage innovation and productivity across supply chains.Each Social Value Theme in turn contains detailed Model Award Criteria, and for this contract NHS England applied:Innovation and Disruptive Technologies, to support innovation and disruptive technologies throughout the supply chain to deliver lower cost and/or higher quality goods and services; andModernising Delivery and Increasing Productivity, to support the development of scalable and future-proofed new methods to modernise delivery and increase productivity.The KPI was included to ensure those commitments are monitored transparently. This is consistent with the Government’s requirement to publish KPIs for its most important contracts, as part of strengthening accountability and transparency in public procurement.