Written questions by Whitby.

Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that delays to broadband rollout are minimised when a Building Digital UK contract is terminated.

Project Gigabit is designed to adapt in the event a contracted supplier can no longer complete its planned delivery, utilising a mix of contracts and interventions to enable us to continue to bring fast, reliable broadband to hard-to-reach premises across the UK. This process is intended to mitigate the potential impact of contract terminations on rural communities and to ensure that delays to the rollout of Project Gigabit are minimised.In May 2025, Building Digital UK (BDUK) and Full Fibre mutually agreed to terminate the Project Gigabit contract for the Peak District, which included some premises in the Derbyshire Dales constituency.BDUK is now engaging with suppliers to review alternative options for extending coverage in this region. The coverage that can be provided, and the timescale for its delivery, will depend on what suppliers are able to offer within the public funding that can be made available, and we are keen to ensure this happens as quickly as possible.

What progress the Government has made on reviewing how future MPS surpluses should be shared.

The previous Minister of State for Industry met the MPS Trustees on 9 July and confirmed the Government’s commitment to considering their proposals regarding the future of the scheme. DESNZ will now engage HM Treasury with a view to agreeing a way forward.

What steps he is taking to support the provision of mobile breast cancer screening units.

The Government fully supports the use of mobile breast screening units where they are deemed appropriate. Mobile units support reduction of health inequalities by providing access to screening in areas where local people have difficulty accessing static screening units.

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 12 April 2025 to Question 57518 on Farms: Tenants, if she will make it her policy to prevent agricultural landlords participating in the (a) Sustainable Farming Incentive, (b) Countryside Stewardship Scheme, (c) Landscape Recovery Scheme and (d) other similar schemes for a period of 12 months after they have taken land back from a tenant farmer.

The Government remains committed to ensuring agricultural tenancies are fair and collaborative. Agricultural tenancy agreements grant tenant farmers statutory protections. Where tenancies end, all parties are encouraged to employ the Agricultural Landlord and Tenant Code of Practice, which sets out expected standards for constructive tenancy negotiations.

If she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the amount jurors can claim for jury service in the context of trends in the level of childcare costs in the last five years.

The Government keeps under review all support provided to jurors throughout their service. Jury service is an important civic duty, and we want to ensure jurors feel supported as they undertake this important role. Jurors can claim childcare expenses for additional costs incurred due to jury service, as well as allowances for travel to and from court and subsistence during attendance. Additionally, expectant or new parents, including breastfeeding mothers, may request to be excused from jury duty if their caring responsibilities prevent them from serving within the next twelve months.

What steps she is taking to ensure that banks abide by the Payment Systems Regulator's new mandatory reimbursement framework and swiftly investigate cases of APP fraud.

The Government takes the issue of fraud very seriously and is dedicated to protecting the public from this appalling crime. The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) is the independent regulator with responsibility for the Authorised Push Payment (APP) scam reimbursement regime. The PSR’s rules require in scope Payment Service Providers (PSPs) to reimburse victims of APP scams, which take place over the Faster Payments System, within five business days of making a claim. However, PSPs may take longer in specific circumstances, including where it may need more time to gather sufficient information from the victim or third parties to help assess the claim. To monitor the success and impact of its regime, the PSR has committed to commission an independent post-implementation review of its policy after 12 months of the policy being in force. On 11 March, the Government announced its intentions to consolidate the PSR and its functions primarily within the FCA. The PSR continues to be an independent economic regulator with full access to its statutory powers until legislation is passed to change this and APP scam victims will continue to benefit from the same levels of protection.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of reductions to the housing benefit taper rate on the number of young people in supported accommodation entering employment.

It remains the department’s priority to ensure that those who can work are supported to enter the labour market and to sustain employment. The Department acknowledges there is a challenge presented by the interaction between Universal Credit and Housing Benefit for those living in Supported Housing and Temporary Accommodation and receiving their housing support through Housing Benefit. The department will consider the issue carefully in partnership with stakeholders.Like Universal Credit, Housing Benefit has an income taper. As Housing Benefit may be claimed by those both in work and out of work, there are no rules around the number of hours that someone may work; instead, there are income tapers which apply. The income taper in Housing Benefit ensures people in work are better off than someone wholly reliant on benefits. In addition to any financial advantage, there are important non-financial benefits of working. These benefits include learning new skills, improved confidence and independence as well as a positive effect on an individual's mental and physical health. However, the treatment of earnings in Housing Benefit is less generous than that of Universal Credit. Therefore, although customers living in Supported Housing are better off working than doing no work at all, they can be financially better off limiting the hours they work to ensure they retain a small amount of Universal Credit entitlement.Changing the current rules would require a fiscal event and funding at a Budget. As funding is required to allow a change, any future decisions will take account of the current fiscal context.

What steps she is taking to reduce differences between the level of tax applied to (a) physical and (b) online businesses.

To provide stability and predictability to both physical and online businesses, the government published its Corporate Tax Roadmap at Autumn Budget 2024. The roadmap committed to maintaining the main rate of Corporation Tax at 25%, which is the lowest in the G7, as well as a maintaining the UK’s generous R&D tax reliefs and world-leading capital allowance offer. The Government also wants to ensure that the business rates burden is permanently rebalanced. That is why we have announced our intention to introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure properties, with rateable values (RVs) below £500,000 from 2026-27. This permanent tax cut will ensure that they benefit from much-needed certainty and support. We intend to fund these through introducing a higher multiplier for the highest value properties – those with RVs of £500,000 or above. These high-value properties cover the majority of large distribution warehouses, including those used by the online giants. The final design of the new business rate multipliers, including their rates, will be set at Budget 2025 so that the Government can take into account the upcoming revaluation outcomes, as well as the economic and fiscal context. To ensure that digital services providers pay their fair share of UK tax, the UK introduced the Digital Services Tax (DST) which is a 2 per cent tax levied on search engines, social media platforms, and online marketplaces to reflect the value they derive from UK users.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent steps his Department has taken to ensure that, with the exception of the F-35, no British arms being exported to Israel are being used in the conflict in Gaza.

All export licences are assessed on a case-by-case basis. All licences for exports to the Israeli Defence Forces are kept under careful ongoing review to ensure they are not being used for military operations in Gaza or the West Bank.

Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to ensure that the proposed short-term let registration scheme will ensure all properties are clean and safe.

The registration scheme will make short-term let providers aware of their legal responsibilities, particularly around safety, helping to raise standards of accommodation, build consumer confidence, and support fair competition.

What steps his Department is taking to ensure that NHS dentistry receives adequate investment from new NHS funds allocated to the Department through the Spending Review.

The Department settlement announced at the 2025 Spending Review means that annual National Health Service day-to-day spending will increase by £29 billion in real terms, a £53 billion cash increase, by 2028/29 compared to 2023/24. This will take the NHS resource budget to £226 billion by 2028/29, the equivalent to a 3% average annual real terms growth rate over the Spending Review period. The details of budget allocations within departments are still being determined. The Department is working to provide the detail and certainty needed on future funding and spending plans, including for NHS dentistry.NHS planning guidance for 2025/26 confirms that dental budgets are ringfenced. Planning guidance also confirms that improving access to urgent dental appointments is a key national priority.

Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that leaseholders receive cladding remediation as swiftly as possible.

On 2 December 2024, the government set out the Remediation Acceleration Plan (RAP) which, for the first time, set targets for remediation so that by the end of 2029 all 18m+ buildings with unsafe cladding in a government funded scheme will have been remediated. It further committed that by the end of 2029 every building of 11m+ with unsafe cladding will either have been remediated, have a completion date, or the landlord will be liable for severe penalties.On 17 July 2025, the government published an update to the RAP which set out the next steps for addressing the barriers to remediation so buildings can be fixed faster, work can be done to identify those buildings still at risk and that residents and leaseholders can be supported through the process. The update included our intention to create new powers to accelerate remediation and force landlords to act, including through a remediation backstop, which will give powers for government to get work done where landlords fail. A Remediation Bill will be brought forward implementing measures to compel landlords to remediate their buildings when parliamentary time allows.

How the proportion of NHS expenditure allocated to primary care dentistry net of patient charge revenue compared with other areas of NHS primary care in each financial year since 2010/11.

Prior to 2023/24, there was no specific dental budget allocation and dentistry formed part of a wider budget including community pharmacy and optometry. Since 2023/24, there has been a specific dental ringfence allocation for integrated care boards. This includes primary, secondary and community dentistry and is set net of patient charges. The attached table sets out actual spend on different aspects of primary care for 2013/14 onwards, with previous comparable figures not being available as they predate the creation of NHS England.

What steps his Department is taking to improve mental health provision in (a) rural and (b) agricultural communities.

We are working with NHS England on a refreshed workforce plan, which will revolve around the three shifts to deliver our 10-Year Health Plan: moving more care from hospitals to communities; making better use of technology in health and care; and focusing on preventing sickness, not just treating it, including in rural and agricultural communities.Responsibility for the onward commissioning of mental health services sits with integrated care boards (ICB). It is the role of local ICB decision-makers to consider the implications of mental health services, specific to each geography and including the perspectives of healthcare professionals, patient advocacy groups, and local authorities.We are also committed to the rolling out Young Futures Hubs in communities in England, which will be designed with local areas, leveraging local understanding of services in each area, including rural and agricultural needs. Young Futures Hubs will develop from existing buildings and provision, identified by local areas. This will make best use of existing local assets and the successes of existing provision partnerships and support.

Communities and Local Government, whether her Department plans to mandate embodied carbon reporting.

The government recognises that embodied carbon can account for a significant portion of a building’s whole life carbon emissions and remains committed to the 2050 net zero target. We have recently published research to improve understanding of embodied carbon and the data currently available, to support those who want to take action and to help inform future thinking across the sector. The government remains committed to supporting progress in this area in a way that is both practical and sustainable.

Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to introduce a cap on ground rents.

The government remains firmly committed to its manifesto commitment to tackle unregulated and unaffordable ground rents, and we will deliver this in legislation.

What steps her Department is taking to improve workplace health and safety protections for farm and agricultural workers.

In line with its published Strategy 2022 to 2032, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) focuses on the most effective and efficient ways to improve the health and safety performance of all industries in Great Britain, including farming. Between 2018 and 2024, in partnership with the industry, HSE ran a campaign to offer farmers free health and safety training which was then followed up by an inspection to a selection of those farms invited to take the training. HSE will continue to visit farms where they have intelligence to suggest risk is not being managed adequately and investigate incidents in line with their published selection criteria. As well as appropriate site visits, HSE continues to engage with farming through a variety of other methods including delivering industry talks; webinars and presentations; engaging with the media and publishing targeted articles for farmers; producing industry notifications which include safety messaging; and producing awareness raising campaigns. It also produces a range of freely available guidance to enable farmers to comply with health and safety law and keep themselves and others safe. HSE’s commitment to working with the agricultural industry through stakeholders such as Britain’s Farm Safety Partnerships (FSPs) remains strong. The most recent activity includes supporting the FSPs with a campaign on safe use of quad bikes.

Whether his Department plans to introduce requirements for car parking companies to install solar canopies on large parking lots.

Outdoor car parks provide potential to deploy solar canopies providing clean electricity, potential for electric vehicle charging and shelter for cars. As such, the government published a Call for Evidence, which closed on the 18th June, to gather robust evidence from stakeholders across industry, local authorities and other relevant sectors to inform a carefully designed, evidence-based approach to increasing uptake. A Government Response will be published this year.

What steps he is taking to improve access to NHS dentists in rural areas.

This Government is determined to improve access to NHS dentistry.We are targeting areas most in need, including in rural areas, by delivering 700,000 extra urgent dental appointments and recruiting dentists under the Golden Hellos scheme.We will reform the dental contract, with a consultation underway on measures to improve access. More fundamental reforms will follow before the end of this Parliament.

Whether she plans to improve employer compliance with statutory sick pay obligations.

The Government believes that enforcement of Statutory Sick Pay is vital in ensuring that employees receive the correct amount of Statutory Sick Pay they are due. Guidance to both employers and employees is provided on Gov.uk. HMRC also operates a dispute resolution process through its Statutory Payments Dispute Team for individuals who believe they have been wrongly denied Statutory Sick Pay. However, the Government wants to go further in supporting employers and improving compliance with Statutory Sick Pay obligations. That is why it will be included in the Fair Work Agency which will bring together existing state enforcement functions into one place, so employment rights, including Statutory Sick Pay, are enforced more effectively and efficiently. The Fair Work Agency will provide better support to businesses to comply with the law and will also work closely with the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) which already provides guidance for employers and workers.