Every parliamentary written question tabled by Dan Norris this session, with the full answer and department. See how every department answers, or back to the MP page.
Showing 21–40 of 285 · this parliament
What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of tidal power on achieving Carbon Budget 7.
The Clean Power 2030 Action Plan recognises that while emerging renewable technologies such as tidal stream are expected to play a limited role in the 2030 energy mix, scaling up deployment of these technologies could be critical to achieving the UK’s lon...
What estimate his Department has made of the number of homes in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency to be fitted with low-carbon heating systems under policies supporting Carbon Budge
Information on heat pumps and biomass boilers installed through the Boiler Upgrade Scheme is published in Table Q1.3 of the Boiler Upgrade Scheme Statistics release. By the end of March 2026, 238 heat pumps and fewer than 5 biomass boilers had been instal...
What discussions he has had with the West of England Mayoral Authority on the implementation of Carbon Budget 7.
The Department regularly engages with local government on net zero delivery, strategy and policy through the Local Net Zero Delivery Group, and with Metro Mayors through quarterly roundtables.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps were taken to protect the newly establishing trees in the Western Forest during May’s heatwave.
The Western Forest has used a range of measures to mitigate unseasonal weather. This includes early-season planting, using mulch mats, and planting resilient cell-grown saplings that are matched to local conditions. Defra and the National Forest Company a...
What recent steps her Department has taken to tackle knife crime in the North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.
We have set a clear and ambitious target: to halve knife crime in a decade. We are already seeing results. Since the start of this Parliament, knife crime has fallen by 10% and knife homicides are down 27%, at their lowest level in a decade. In Avon and S...
Whether his Department has made an assessment of the adequacy of the resilience of outsourced non-emergency patient transport services.
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for their delegated functions, including services contracted to private providers such as non-emergency patient transport schemes (NEPTS). The delegation framework for commissioning in the National Health Serv...
What financial monitoring arrangements Integrated Care Boards are required to maintain for private ambulance contractors delivering NHS-funded services.
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for their delegated functions, including services contracted to private providers such as non-emergency patient transport schemes (NEPTS). The delegation framework for commissioning in the National Health Serv...
Whether it is the policy of HM Revenue and Customs to inform NHS commissioners of concerns regarding unpaid VAT liabilities prior to filing a winding-up petition.
It is not HMRC’s policy to inform NHS Commissioners of unpaid liabilities. HMRC is unable to discuss debts held by third parties with NHS Commissioners due to taxpayer confidentiality rules. This includes companies that have been contracted to deliver NHS...
Whether (a) his department (b) ICBs are routinely informed when major NHS contractors face significant tax enforcement action.
HM Revenue and Customs is subject to a statutory duty of taxpayer confidentiality, which generally prevents it from disclosing information to other Government bodies except where there is a lawful basis to do so.Accordingly, while information may be share...
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to reduce fly tipping in North East Somerset and Hanham.
Local councils are responsible for tackling fly-tipping in their area and have a range of enforcement powers to help them do so. These include fixed penalty notices of up to £1000 and prosecution action. To support councils to make better use of their pow...
What assessment she has made of the adequacy of workforce training capacity to support the transition to electric vehicles.
The Government is committed to ensuring the UK has the right skills to remain at the forefront of the manufacturing and maintenance of electric vehicles (EVs).The number of EV qualified technicians has risen rapidly. According to data from the Institute o...
Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to improve the safety of young people online in North East Somerset and Hanham.
Protecting children from harm online is a priority for the Secretary of State. That is why the Secretary of State launched the consultation ‘Growing up in an Online World’ on how to go further to protect children and has committed to respond by the Summer...
Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of factory farming on ammonia pollution.
Defra does not have an assessment of “factory farms”. However, a breakdown of UK ammonia emissions by livestock sector can be found in Table 1 of this published document; 2509190841_UK_Agriculture_Ammonia_Emission_Report_1990-2023_26062025_Final.pdf.
What steps he is taking to help reduce waiting times at the RUH (Bath) A&E department.
The Government recognises the pressures facing emergency departments, including at the Royal United Hospital Bath, and is taking sustained action to reduce accident and emergency waiting times and improve patient flow across urgent and emergency care. Through the NHS Medium‑Term Planning Framework and the Model Emergency Department, NHS England has set out a clear trajectory for improving performance, with a focus on reducing long waits, improving safety, and delivering better patient experience.At the Royal United Hospital Bath, NHS England is working with the trust and the wider local system to support delivery of these improvements. This includes action to improve patient flow, increase the use of Same Day Emergency Care to avoid unnecessary admissions, strengthen discharge and community capacity, and deliver capital investment to improve emergency department flow. The trust is also receiving support from national improvement programmes, including Getting It Right First Time, alongside action to strengthen overnight staffing and real‑time performance oversight.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help increase accountability in the water sector in the West of England.
For too long, water companies paid out billions in dividends while pumping sewage into our rivers. This Government is ending that. The Water White Paper creates a single regulator, prevention-focused enforcement, and tougher laws: banning bonuses for failure and ensuring water works for customers, not just shareholders. To truly turn around the water sector we need the right people in to do the job. We want the sector to be attractive to high quality senior leaders, acting in the public interest, who can lead change from the top. To achieve this, the Government committed in the White Paper to consider taking forward a new regime for senior accountability. This would be carefully designed to ensure senior leaders are directly accountable for the service customers receive, whilst still allowing water companies to appoint capable leadership
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help tackle waste crime in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.
The Government published its new Waste Crime Action Plan on 20 March which is the toughest ever crackdown on illegal waste. We will tighten regulation to close the loopholes criminals exploit, enable tougher enforcement to disrupt and punish them, and direct action to clean up the damage they leave behind. The Government is committed to tackling waste crime in North East Somerset and Hanham. We are strengthening the Environment Agency’s enforcement powers and funding, and supporting joint working with Bath and North East Somerset Council and the local police services. Across the constituency, the Environment Agency is using intelligence led inspections and investigations to identify illegal waste activity, take enforcement action, and disrupt organised waste crime, protecting local communities and the environment, and ensuring waste is managed responsibly locally.
Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to protect supported housing in NE Somerset and Hanham constituency.
The government is committed to improving the quality of supported housing across England. We are implementing measures in the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023, which will strengthen local oversight, improve quality of support and require councils to produce Local Supported Housing Strategies to understand local supply, demand and unmet need. We recognise the significant challenges faced by the supported housing and homelessness sector. As announced at Autumn Budget 2025, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury is leading work across government to improve the value for money of homelessness services, including delivery models to increase the supply of good‑quality, good‑value supported housing.
What estimate he has made of the number of renewable energy projects awaiting grid connection in NE Somerset and Hanham; and what steps he is taking to reduce connection delays.
Information on projects holding connection agreements is available at TEC Register | National Energy System Operator for transmission projects and National Grid - Embedded capacity register for distribution projects in the South-West. However, data is categorised by grid connection point, not geographic location of projects. At transmission level, Government is working with National Energy System Operator, network companies and Ofgem to prioritise connections for viable projects that meet our strategic needs. In addition, in its end-to-end review, Ofgem is proposing measures to hold network companies more to account on timely delivery of connections, to both the transmission and distribution networks.
Whether she collects data on local highways authority spending on highways maintenance additional to funding provided by central government.
Local authorities are responsible for setting their own highways maintenance budgets, drawing on a combination of Department for Transport capital funding and their wider local resources. To support greater transparency, the Department introduced a requirement last year for all local highway authorities to publish annual highways maintenance transparency reports. These set out how each authority plans to spend its Department for Transport highways maintenance allocation, alongside its total planned highways maintenance expenditure from all funding sources. This provides clearer visibility of the extent to which authorities invest above their DfT allocation. In addition, the Department introduced a new traffic light rating system for all local highway authorities in England on 11 January. All authorities are assessed annually and receive a red, amber or green rating based on the condition of their roads, how much they spend to maintain their roads, and whether they do so using best practice. As part of the spend scorecard within this rating system, authorities that reported plans to spend 100% of their Departmental allocation received an amber rating. The vast majority of authorities reported plans to invest at least 30% of additional capital from other funding sources to maintain their highway networks, and 113 authorities therefore received a green spend scorecard.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to support new bathing sites in the West of England.
To designate a site as a bathing water, an application must be submitted to Defra. Applications for new bathing sites are driven by the public and put forward for consultation if certain criteria are met, which can be found online at gov.uk. We are currently consulting on proposals to designate 13 new bathing waters in England ahead of the 2026 bathing season. No applications were received from the West of England this year.