Written questions by Morello.

What steps she is taking to support local authorities in west Dorset to expand electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

The Government is committed to accelerating the roll-out of affordable and accessible charging infrastructure so that everyone, no matter where they live or work, can make the transition to an electric vehicle. The Government and industry have supported the installation of 75,305 publicly available charging devices, including 15,082 rapid charging devices. There are currently over 5,250 open-access rapid and ultra-rapid chargers within one mile of the strategic road network. As of 1 January 2025, there were 107 public charging devices in West Dorset, including 30 rapid or ultra-rapid devices. Dorset Council, which includes West Dorset constituency, were allocated almost £3 million of capital and resource funding through the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund. The £381 million LEVI Fund supports local authorities in England to work with industry and transform the availability of EV charging for drivers without off-street parking. The funding, backed by private investment, will support the installation of at least 100,000 on-street chargepoints across England.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that water bill increases provide value for money to consumers.

Ofwat published their final determinations for Price Review 2024 on 19 December, which sets company expenditure and customer bills for 2025-2030.This will deliver substantial, lasting, improvements for customers and the environment through a £104 billion upgrade for the water sector. These bill rises equate to around £3 additional per month on average before inflation. This will pay to fix crumbling infrastructure, which will dramatically reduce sewage spills and lead to cleaner rivers, lakes and seas. For too long, investment has not kept pace with the challenges of an ageing infrastructure system, a rapidly growing population and climate change. Whilst bills will therefore now need to rise to invest in our crumbling infrastructure and deliver cleaner waterways, we fully understand the financial pressures hardworking families are currently facing. We are pushing the sector to ensure support is available for vulnerable customers who are struggling to pay their bills. The Government expects water companies to put robust support measures in place for customers to ensure that vulnerable customers across the country are supported and is working with industry to keep current support schemes under review to ensure that customers are sufficiently supported. Furthermore, the Government expects companies to hold themselves accountable for their commitment to end Water Poverty by 2030 and will work with the sector to ensure that appropriate measures are taken to this end.

Food and Rural Affairs, what support is available to help homeowners with private sewage systems to meet environmental standards.

In some cases involving more than one property, and where the other qualifying criteria set out in the legislation and associated Ministerial guidance are met, the relevant sewerage undertaker may have a duty to provide and pay for a new public sewer to serve those properties under s101A, Water Industry Act 1991. There is no other financial help available nationally, either through the Environment Agency or directly from the Government, for improvements needed to comply with the requirements of the Environmental Permitting Regulations relating to private sewerage systems. Recognising the costs involved, the EA seek to agree a reasonable timescale for improvements to be made with the owner of the affected property, usually within 1 year, although this may be agreed on a case-by-case basis. There are some local schemes in place which offer support for the replacement of existing private sewerage systems in certain circumstances however, such as through United Utilities’ bespoke performance commitment relating to private sewerage systems around Windermere.

Food and Rural Affairs, how often inspections are conducted on private sewage systems to prevent environmental contamination.

In 2022, 2023 and 2024 respectively the Environment Agency carried out 185, 224 and 202 inspections of private sewerage systems, excluding private discharges of trade effluent.

Food and Rural Affairs, how he (a) monitors and (b) evaluates the effectiveness of projects financed by the Water Restoration Fund.

The Water Restoration Fund is reinvesting funding based on water company environmental fines and penalties into projects to improve the water environment. Up to £11 million of funding was made available on a competitive basis to support a range of water restoration projects, which is administered by the Rural Payments Agency (RPA). Water environmental improvement project applications were assessed through a competitive process against published scoring criteria. Applications were assessed against other applications within the water company region that applicants applied for, by both a technical assessment panel and a moderation panel. Following this rigorous assessment process, I am pleased to say that current applicants to the Water Restoration Fund have been contacted regarding the outcome of their application. Further details regarding which projects have been successful will be shared in due course once funding agreements have been finalised. Details of the assessment can be found online at Gov.uk

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that Water Restoration Fund funded projects achieve their intended outcomes.

The Water Restoration Fund is reinvesting funding based on water company environmental fines and penalties into projects to improve the water environment. Up to £11 million of funding was made available on a competitive basis to support a range of water restoration projects, which is administered by the Rural Payments Agency (RPA). Water environmental improvement project applications were assessed through a competitive process against published scoring criteria. Applications were assessed against other applications within the water company region that applicants applied for, by both a technical assessment panel and a moderation panel. Following this rigorous assessment process, I am pleased to say that current applicants to the Water Restoration Fund have been contacted regarding the outcome of their application. Further details regarding which projects have been successful will be shared in due course once funding agreements have been finalised. Details of the assessment can be found online at Gov.uk

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of trends in the level of water bills for consumers.

Ofwat published their final determinations for Price Review 2024 on 19 December, which sets company expenditure and customer bills for 2025-2030.This will deliver substantial, lasting, improvements for customers and the environment through a £104 billion upgrade for the water sector. These bill rises equate to around £3 additional per month on average before inflation. This will pay to fix crumbling infrastructure, which will dramatically reduce sewage spills and lead to cleaner rivers, lakes and seas. For too long, investment has not kept pace with the challenges of an ageing infrastructure system, a rapidly growing population and climate change. Whilst bills will therefore now need to rise to invest in our crumbling infrastructure and deliver cleaner waterways, we fully understand the financial pressures hardworking families are currently facing. We are pushing the sector to ensure support is available for vulnerable customers who are struggling to pay their bills. The Government expects water companies to put robust support measures in place for customers to ensure that vulnerable customers across the country are supported and is working with industry to keep current support schemes under review to ensure that customers are sufficiently supported. Furthermore, the Government expects companies to hold themselves accountable for their commitment to end Water Poverty by 2030 and will work with the sector to ensure that appropriate measures are taken to this end.

What steps the Motor Insurance Taskforce is taking to help reduce the cost of motor insurance.

The cross-Government motor insurance taskforce was launched in October. It is comprised of ministers from relevant government departments and the Financial Conduct Authority and Competition and Markets Authority. The taskforce is supported by a separate stakeholder panel of industry experts representing the insurance, motor, and consumer sector.The taskforce has a strategic remit to set the direction for UK Government policy, identifying short- and long-term actions for departments that may contribute to stabilising or reducing premiums, while maintaining appropriate levels of cover. It will look at the increased insurance costs on consumers and the insurance industry, including how this impacts different demographics, geographies, and communities. The Department will provide updates on the motor insurance taskforce’s work and announce a date for the next meeting in due course.

Food and Rural Affairs, what criteria his Department uses to assess funding applications for the Water Restoration Fund.

The Water Restoration Fund is reinvesting funding based on water company environmental fines and penalties into projects to improve the water environment. Up to £11 million of funding was made available on a competitive basis to support a range of water restoration projects, which is administered by the Rural Payments Agency (RPA). Water environmental improvement project applications were assessed through a competitive process against published scoring criteria. Applications were assessed against other applications within the water company region that applicants applied for, by both a technical assessment panel and a moderation panel. Following this rigorous assessment process, I am pleased to say that current applicants to the Water Restoration Fund have been contacted regarding the outcome of their application. Further details regarding which projects have been successful will be shared in due course once funding agreements have been finalised. Details of the assessment can be found online at Gov.uk

Whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Transport on improving the accessibility of air travel for people with disabilities.

Aviation needs to be accessible so everyone can travel with dignity and ease. The Department for Transport’s Aviation Accessibility Task and Finish Group was launched in November. I look forward to seeing its recommendations for improving aviation accessibility.

Whether his Department has conducted a feasibility study on increasing domestic production of critical weapon systems.

The Strategic Defence Review will determine the roles and capabilities required by UK Defence to meet the challenges and threats of the twenty-first century. The Prime Minister’s February announcement that spending on defence will increase to 2.5% of GDP from April 2027 reflects ongoing global instability.This increased spending will sustain the UK’s globally competitive defence industry, supporting highly skilled jobs and apprenticeships across the whole of the UK. The Defence Industrial Strategy will also review consideration of the sovereign capability and capacity required in the UK.An example of early action against our security and economic priorities is the £1.6 billion deal to supply thousands of advanced air defence missiles to Ukraine. The deal will support 700 existing jobs at Thales in Belfast, will see production of lightweight-multirole missiles at Thales’s factory treble and will also benefit companies in the Thales Supply Chain across the UK.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department is taking steps to support farmers who did not apply for the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme before its closure.

This Government is proud to have secured the largest budget for sustainable food production in our country’s history, with £5 billion being spent to support farmers over a two-year period. Following the announcement that Defra has closed SFI for the submission of new applications, outstanding eligible applications that have been submitted will be processed. SFI is an important offer, but it is part of a wider package. We remain committed to investing in agri-environment schemes. We plan to launch the new Higher Tier scheme later this year; Capital Grants will re-open in summer 2025; we continue to move forward with Landscape Recovery; and we are increasing payment rates for Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreement holders to recognise their ongoing commitment to delivering environmental outcome. Funding from the farming budget also supports the provision of advice within the sector. The Farming Advice Service can assist farmers to review what advice and guidance is available to meet their business needs.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the timing of the closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme on farmers.

We publish regular statistics on Farm Business Income. Farming evidence packs for example have been recently updated including key statistics and farm performance. These set out an extensive range of data to provide an overview of agriculture in the UK. We will continue to carry out appropriate and timely assessments of our interventions to inform policy development. On the 11th of March 2025 we published forecasts which suggest that average Farm Business Income has risen in 2024/25 across all farm types with the exception of cereal farms. This follows a fall in income for most farm types in 2023/24, after some exceptional highs in the two preceding years. For all farm types, except for Cereals, expected reductions in Direct Payments have been completely offset by projected increases in other Farm Business Income components in 2024/25. 50,000 farm businesses are already in agri-environmental schemes. We will open up initial applications for Countryside Stewardship Higher tier and a revised Environmental Land Management capital grants offer later in the Summer.

Food and Rural Affairs, for what reasons his Department decided to (a) announce the closure of and (b) close the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme to new applicants on the same day.

This Government has committed £5 billion over 2 years to sustainable farming and nature recovery and we’ve worked hard to get as many farmers into environmental land management schemes as possible. The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) now has more than 37,000 multi-year live agreements and is not only delivering sustainable food production and nature’s recovery for today and the years ahead, but it is also putting money back into farmers’ pockets. With record numbers of farm businesses in farming schemes and the sustainable farming budget successfully allocated, we have stopped accepting new applications for SFI. This high uptake of the scheme means it is fully subscribed. The decision to close the scheme to new applications was taken at that point.  We could not give any advance notice because we needed to ensure fair access to the scheme and avoid creating a sudden increase in the level of demand.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department plans to introduce a replacement scheme following the closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme.

We have closed Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) for new applications because the current SFI budget has been successfully allocated, with large-scale uptake of the scheme and 37,000 live SFI agreements delivering towards our environmental targets. Now is the right time for a reset: supporting farmers, delivering for nature and targeting public funds fairly and effectively towards our priorities for food, farming and nature. We will be reforming the SFI offer to direct funding towards SFI actions which are most appropriate for the least productive land and have the strongest case for enduring public investment. This will allow us to align SFI with our work on the Land Use Framework and the 25-year farming roadmap to protect the most productive land and boost food security, whilst delivering for nature. A budget will be set for the coming year in the Chancellor’s spending review. Now the scheme is fully allocated it will temporarily close to new applicants while we will work with the farming sector to prioritise funding for future years so we can target those who will benefit most before reopening to new applicants. We expect to publish more information about the reformed SFI offer in summer 2025. This will include an indication of when we expect to re-open SFI for applications.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an estimate of the number of farms that hadn't applied to the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme before its closure in West Dorset constituency.

Our recent published statistics on area under agri-environment schemes can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/area-under-agri-environment-schemes-in-england-2024/area-under-agri-environment-schemes-in-england-at-31st-december-2024 They show that 58% of Dorset land parcel area (which approximates the eligible area) was under SFI agreements. In January 2025, there were 1,400 SFI23 and 400 SFI expanded offer agreements in the ITL2 area of Dorset and Somerset.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether the replacement scheme for the Sustainable Farming Incentive will be (a) index-linked to inflation and (a) provide greater financial support than the SFI scheme.

Prices in schemes have increased in the last 3 years to reflect inflation and pay a fair price for action. The overall budget has been set in the context of the Spending Review and is sufficient to continue rolling out schemes and paying farmers as planned this year. The budget for future years will be set in phase 2 of the Spending Review. We will provide further details about the reformed SFI offer following the Spending Review.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an estimate of the number of farms that had not applied for the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme before its closure.

On 31st December 2024, SFI23 agreements covered 39% of the utilised agricultural area (UAA) of England, and SFI expanded offer agreements a further 4%. Approximately 64% of the UAA of England was under an agri-environment scheme. Approximately 30% of the 100,000 active farm businesses registered with the RPA had SFI agreements as of the 1st of January 2025. Approximately 50% of farm businesses have an agri-environment agreement.

Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will make an estimate of the number of farms that did not apply for the Sustainable Farming Incentive before its closure.

On 31st December 2024, SFI23 agreements covered 39% of the utilised agricultural area (UAA) of England, and SFI expanded offer agreements a further 4%. Approximately 64% of the UAA of England was under an agri-environment scheme. Approximately 30% of the 100,000 active farm businesses registered with the RPA had SFI agreements as of the 1st of January 2025. Approximately 50% of farm businesses have an agri-environment agreement.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive on the viability of family farms.

50,000 farm businesses are already in agri-environmental schemes. We will open up initial applications for Countryside Stewardship Higher tier and a revised Environmental Land Management capital grants offer later in the Summer. On the 11th of March 2025 we published forecasts which suggest that Average Farm Business Income has risen in 2024/25 across all farm types with the exception of cereal farms. This follows a fall in income for most farm types in 2023/24, after some exceptional highs in the two preceding years. For all farm types, except for Cereals, expected reductions in Direct Payments have been completely offset by projected increases in other Farm Business Income components in 2024/25.