Written questions by Morello.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of replacing Personal Independence Payment (PIP) cash payments with vouchers on claimants' autonomy and financial management.

This Government is committed to putting the views and voices of disabled people at the heart of all that we do. We are committed to reforming the system of health and disability benefits so that it promotes and enables employment among as many people as possible. The system must also work to support disabled people to live independently. It is also vital to ensure that the system is financially sustainable in the long term. We are working to develop proposals for reform in the months ahead and will set them out in a Green Paper ahead of the Spring Statement later this year.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that any proposed changes to PIP do not lead to financial hardship or reduced quality of life for recipients.

This Government is committed to putting the views and voices of disabled people at the heart of all that we do. We are committed to reforming the system of health and disability benefits so that it promotes and enables employment among as many people as possible. The system must also work to support disabled people to live independently. It is also vital to ensure that the system is financially sustainable in the long term. We are working to develop proposals for reform in the months ahead and will set them out in a Green Paper ahead of the Spring Statement later this year.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support (a) existing and (b) the creation of new local abattoirs.

The Government firmly believes that food security is national security and is committed to maintaining a resilient food supply chain. Defra recognises the vital contribution a thriving abattoir network plays in achieving this goal. We remain committed to working with abattoirs of all sizes across the UK’s meat processing sector in tackling the challenges and opportunities they face.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he has taken with Cabinet colleagues to support farmers' mental health.

At the budget we committed £5 billion to farming over the next two years which will see the biggest ever budget for sustainable food production and nature recovery in our country’s history. We also committed £60 million through the Farming Recovery Fund to support farmers affected by unprecedented extreme wet weather last winter. More specifically, Defra has set up a dedicated team to look at the particular set of issues driving poor mental health outcomes in the farming and agricultural sector. We will be working in consultation with communities, farming support organisations and experts across the Government to review how we can best support those experiencing poor mental health. Furthermore, the Government is building a national network of Young Futures hubs, which will be present in every community and will deliver support for young people facing mental health challenges. Finally, the Government is giving mental health the same attention and focus as physical health through measures such as employing 8,500 new mental health support workers. This will reduce delays and provide faster treatment closer to people’s homes.

What steps her Department is taking to consult with disability advocacy groups on the proposed changes to Personal Independence Payment, including any changes to payment methods.

This Government is committed to putting the views and voices of disabled people at the heart of all that we do. We are committed to reforming the system of health and disability benefits so that it promotes and enables employment among as many people as possible. The system must also work to support disabled people to live independently. It is also vital to ensure that the system is financially sustainable in the long term. We are working to develop proposals for reform in the months ahead and will set them out in a Green Paper ahead of the Spring Statement later this year.

Food and Rural Affairs, what recent progress his Department has made on the (a) allocation and (b) accessibility of funding to support farmers to transition to Environmental Land Management schemes; and what assessment he has made of the adequacy of transitional funding supporting farmers to adopt sustainable practices.

In the October 2024 budget, we committed £5 billion for farming over two years, including £1.8 billion for our environmental land management (ELM) schemes - the largest ever budget directed at sustainable food production and nature’s recovery in our country’s history. ELM schemes remain at the centre of our offer for farmers and nature, and we have more than half of farmers in an ELM scheme, putting us on the path to a more resilient and sustainable farming sector. Evaluation has shown that improvements like the simplified Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) application process have reduced barriers to scheme access. Clearly stated requirements and proportionate, regular payments are also viewed positively by participants. With uptake of SFI meeting expectations, ongoing evaluation will ensure we understand and address any further barriers to participation. We are aware of challenges for some farmers trying to move from existing Higher Level Stewardship agreements to new SFI agreements and are working to resolve this over time. We publish regular statistics on farm income in England and other data related to farm businesses. For example, on 14 November 2024, we published our Farm Business Income statistics (Farm business income - GOV.UK), which looked at how farm business income has changed in 2023/24, including the contribution of Direct Payments and agri-environment payments to farm incomes. Farming evidence packs have been recently updated including key statistics and farm performance (Farming statistics evidence packs - GOV.UK). 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.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the proposed changes to Personal Independence Payment on disabled individuals' ability to manage their financial independence.

This Government is committed to putting the views and voices of disabled people at the heart of all that we do. We are committed to reforming the system of health and disability benefits so that it promotes and enables employment among as many people as possible. The system must also work to support disabled people to live independently. It is also vital to ensure that the system is financially sustainable in the long term. We are working to develop proposals for reform in the months ahead and will set them out in a Green Paper ahead of the Spring Statement later this year.

With reference to paragraph 5.91 of the Autumn Budget 2024, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the reclassification of double cab pick-ups with a payload of one tonne or more as cars for tax purposes on farmers from April 2025.

Following recent case law, Double Cab Pick Ups must be treated as cars, rather than goods vehicles, for certain tax purposes, based on their primary suitability. The government will not legislate to treat DCPUs as goods vehicles as this would depart from the broader principles underpinning the Court of Appeal’s judgement, and be a significant tax break worth hundreds of millions per year.As per paragraph 5.91, this will not affect the capital allowances treatment of anyone who already owns a DCPU; anyone who purchases a DCPU before April 2025 will still benefit from the previous tax treatment. For Benefit in Kind, anyone who has accessed a DCPU as a company car before April 2025 will not be impacted until the sooner of disposal of the vehicle, April 2029 or when their lease expires; and employers that have purchased, leased, or ordered a DCPU before 6 April 2025 will also be able to benefit from the previous treatment, until the earlier of disposal, April 2029, or when the lease expires.There are alternatives available to farmers, which provide the same off-road and haulage capabilities and are still treated as goods vehicles, such as single cab pick-ups and 4 x 4 vans.

What steps his Department is taking to ensure parcel delivery companies are held to account when they have (a) extremely low satisfaction rates and (b) poor reviews.

Ofcom is the independent regulator for the postal sector with the responsibility and powers to regulate postal services.Ofcom’s approach to protecting consumers is to include a condition that all postal operators must establish, make available, and comply with transparent, simple, and inexpensive procedures for dealing with consumers’ complaints about the services they receive.Ofcom is committed to ongoing monitoring of operators’ performance and will consider enforcement action or further regulation to protect consumers.

What steps her Department is taking to (a) support home educators and (b) protect children removed from mainstream schools for malicious reasons.

The department is introducing the first ever duty on local authorities to provide support for home educating families as part of the Children not in School measures of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. The support duty ensures an established baseline level of support across all English local authorities, to ensure that wherever home educating families live they can have access to a reliable level of support from their local authority, if they choose to access it.The department’s existing elective home education guidance for parents already sets out to help parents understand their obligations and rights in relation to elective home education.This government is clear that any form of off-rolling is unacceptable, and we will work with Ofsted to tackle this. We are committed to strengthening accountability through reforming Ofsted to enhance the inspection regime by replacing a single headline grade with a new report card system, telling parents clearly how schools are performing, and introduce a new annual review of safeguarding, attendance, and pupil movement, including off-rolling.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to (a) prevent the establishment of pop-up campsites in Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and (b) ensure that such developments do not negatively impact the local environment and biodiversity.

A nationally set permitted development right allows for the temporary use of land for recreational campsites for up to 60 days per calendar year.Where it is necessary to protect the local amenity of an area, the local planning authority can consult the local community on removing a permitted development right by making an Article 4 direction. Planning applications would then be required, and the local planning authority can determine them in accordance with its local plan and in consultation with neighbours.The government continues to keep permitted development rights under review.

What steps her Department has taken to prevent parcel thieves taking parcels which have already been delivered to people’s homes.

This Government is committed to reducing crime and restoring public confidence in policing and we are getting on with this through our Safer Streets Mission, including through delivery of a Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee. As part of this, each neighbourhood will have a named, contactable officer dealing with local issues that communities are experiencing.In January 2025, the Government announced £200 million in the 2025/26 financial year to support the first steps of delivering 13,000 neighbourhood personnel, ensuring the police are visible in every community, deterring and preventing crime.A key part of making acquisitive crime, including theft, less attractive to criminals is making stolen goods harder to sell on. We are working closely with policing and academic leads to examine what more can be done to tackle the disposal markets for stolen goods and reduce the ability to profit from this criminality.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to protect the highest quality agricultural land from development pressures.

This Government places great importance on the value of our agricultural land. The National Planning Policy Framework sets out how the best and most versatile agricultural land should be reflected in planning policies and decisions. The Framework is clear that where significant development of agricultural land is demonstrated to be necessary, areas of poorer quality land should be preferred to those of a higher quality. How this is applied is a matter for local planning authorities in the first instance, through their plans and decisionsEngland has limited land with growing demands being made of it – building 1.5 million homes, constructing energy infrastructure, growing food and protecting nature. The Government has published a 12-week consultation on land use. The consultation will inform the publication of a Land Use Framework, planned for later in the year.

Whether her Department has taken steps to support farmers who have diversified into holiday accommodations to mitigate the potential financial impact of changes to the Furnished Holiday Lettings tax regime.

The Government will abolish the Furnished Holiday Lets (FHL) tax regime from April 2025. This will equalises the tax treatment of FHL and non-FHL landlords’ income and gains, making the tax system fairer.Tax reliefs will still be available to landlords, including farmers, who provide furnished holiday letting services, including mortgage interest relief at 20 per cent and relief for the replacement of domestic items. These reliefs will be at the same level as those available to landlords who provide long-term residential lets.Individual landlords can also benefit from the income tax Personal Allowance, which is the amount of income that can be earned before income tax is paid (£12,570 in 2024-25).

What steps his Department is taking to provide additional funding to ICBs.

At the Autumn Budget, the Government announced a £22.6 billion increase in day-to-day health spending and a £3.1 billion increase in the capital budget over 2024/25 and 2025/26. The recently published recurrent integrated care board core allocations will grow by 4.1% in 2025/26, compared to 2024/25. These growths exclude funding allocations that are made after convergence, including additional elective funding and transfers in from the Service Development Fund, which are treated separately.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department plans to take to ensure that the full farming budget is allocated to frontline agricultural support and does not result in a real-terms funding reduction for farmers.

In the October 2024 budget, we committed £5 billion for farming over two years, including £1.8 billion for our environmental land management schemes - the largest ever budget directed at sustainable food production and nature’s recovery in our country’s history. Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes remain at the centre of our offer for farmers and nature, and we have more than half of farmers in an ELM scheme, putting us on the path to a more resilient and sustainable farming sector. Spending on farming in future financial years will be confirmed as part of the next spending review.

Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Andersons' report Andersons Outlook 2025, published on 5 November 2024, whether he has made an assessment of the reasons for the decline in dairy producers between April 2023 and April 2024; and what steps he is taking to support the sustainability of dairy farms.

This Government recognises that food security is national security, and that it requires a resilient and healthy food system that works with nature and supports farmers. That is why we are introducing new deals for farmers to boost rural economic growth and strengthen food security. While the Andersons Outlook 2025 report highlights that dairy producer numbers in Great Britain declined by 5.8% to 7,130 between April 2023 and April 2024, it also shows that UK milk production remained largely unchanged at around 15b litres per annum. Industry consolidation and productivity gains have kept milk production broadly stable despite declining producer numbers. Ensuring fairness in supply chains is key for UK dairy farmers in supporting the sustainability of the sector. The Fair Dealing Obligations (Milk) Regulations 2024 apply to new dairy contracts from 9 July 2024 and all dairy contracts from 9 July 2025. These regulations improve fairness and transparency, requiring clear terms on pricing, termination, and prohibiting unilateral changes. In addition, the Dairy Export Taskforce, an industry/government partnership, is focused on boosting export growth in the dairy sector. This included the organisation of a successful Government funded dairy showcase for international buyers in the autumn of 2024.

Pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2025 to Question 26669 on Dental Services: Rural Areas and to the pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2025 to Question 26670 on Dental Services: Rural Areas, what guidance his Department provides to Integrated Care Boards on the commissioning of dental vans.

Since 1 April 2023, the responsibility for commissioning primary care, including dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England.NHS England supports ICBs with their local commissioning responsibilities for primary dental services with the provision of nationally agreed policies and procedures. NHS England has also published guidance to support commissioners to take advantage of the opportunities offered to commission further and additional services through flexible commissioning, which enables the responsible commissioner to tailor services to meet local population oral health needs. Further information is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/opportunities-for-flexible-commissioning-in-primary-care-dentistry-a-framework-for-commissioners/

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure long-term stability in the agricultural budget.

In the October 2024 budget, we committed £5 billion for farming over two years, including £1.8 billion for our environmental land management schemes - the largest ever budget directed at sustainable food production and nature’s recovery in our country’s history. Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes remain at the centre of our offer for farmers and nature, and we have more than half of farmers in an ELM scheme, putting us on the path to a more resilient and sustainable farming sector. Spending on farming in future financial years will be confirmed as part of the next spending review.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support farmers to adapt to (a) flooding, (b) droughts and (c) other impacts of climate change.

Farming and food security are the foundations of a healthy and resilient economy, local community, and environment. That is why we have allocated £5 billion for the farming budget over two years, of which £1.8bn is ringfenced for our Environmental land Management schemes (ELMs) in 25/26. This is the largest ever budget directed at sustainable food production and nature’s recovery in our country’s history. We are prioritising direct investment to ELM schemes, which will remain at the centre of our offer for farmers to make our country more sustainable and resilient to climate change, boosting nature and sustainable food production. We already have more than half of farmers in an ELM scheme, putting us on the path to a more resilient and sustainable farming sector. ELMs and Government grant payments create incentives for land managers to adopt sustainable farming practices, which provide benefits for agricultural productivity, biodiversity and resilience to climate events. For example, we are providing funding for farmers to implement natural flood management measures on their land, boosting resilience and supporting flood preparedness. Funding for soil health actions can help reduce the impacts of drought and flooding. The Government has invested £50 million to internal drainage boards (IDBs) as part of the one-off £75 million IDB Fund to support greater resilience for farmers and rural communities in the long term. The IDB Fund will accelerate IDBs’ recovery from the winter 2023-24 storms and provide opportunities to modernise and upgrade assets that protect agricultural land and rural communities. Protecting communities around the country from flooding is one of the Secretary of State’s five core priorities. That’s why we set up a Flood Resilience Taskforce to provide oversight of national and local flood resilience and preparedness ahead of and after the winter flood season. This Taskforce brings together Defra Ministers and officials with representatives from MHCLG, Home Office, Cabinet Office, the Environment Agency, the Met Office, Local Resilience Forums, Lead Local Flood Authorities, Mayoral Offices, emergency responders and the National Farmers Union, among others.