Written questions by Wrigley.

Pursuant to the Answer of 4 March 2025 to Question 34686 on Cars: Lighting, if her Department will commission research into potential correlations between LED headlight brightness and road accidents caused by glare.

All types of road vehicle headlamps, including those using LED technology, are designed, tested and approved to internationally recognised standards to help prevent undue glare on a broad range of roads and environments. Police recorded collision statistics in Great Britain do not show any discernible trend over time that would suggest an underlying road safety issue linked to advances in lighting technology. However, Government recognises increased public concern around headlamp glare and, as noted in my answer to Question 34686, has commissioned independent research. This is measuring light levels experienced by drivers during real driving on UK roads and considers factors like vehicle characteristics, weather conditions and ambient lighting. It also includes a programme of stakeholder engagement to build a comprehensive understanding of the issues. Careful consideration will be given to that work when it reports later this year to determine what future actions may be appropriate to ensure the safety of all road users.

Whether she is taking steps to ensure that vehicles sold in the UK will have automatic headlamp levelling systems by 2027.

Recognising the global nature of the automotive industry, the detailed technical requirements for new vehicles are typically developed within the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), in which the UK is an active member. The UNECE amended its regulations in 2023 to include requirements for automatic headlamp levelling. Vehicle manufacturers can already approve vehicles to this latest regulation, but the transitional provisions covering these requirements run from September 2027 to September 2030 and it would breach our international treaty obligations to mandate these provisions for all vehicles sold during this period. The domestic vehicle type-approval regulation sets the minimum standards to be met by vehicles before entering service in Great Britain, and is kept under constant review. A decision on automatic headlamp levelling will be taken in due course.

What support his Department is providing to small businesses in (a) Devon and (b) other rural areas.

Last year the Business Secretary announced a new Business Growth Service which will make it easier for businesses across Devon and the rest of the UK and in rural areas, to get help, support and advice to grow and thrive.The South West Growth Hub is where small and medium sized businesses in Devon and the surrounding rural areas can benefit from specialist advice on how to scale up, access new markets and receive financial support through the British Business Bank.Businesses can also access other Government programmes such as the Business Support Service, Help to Grow: Management, the UK Export Academy, International Trade Advisors and the Export Support Service.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2025 to Question 26627 on Gulf of Mexico: Politics and Government, what terminology his Department plans to use in international documents when referring to the Gulf of Mexico.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office will continue to follow the guidance of the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names (PCGN) who advises His Majesty's Government on policies and procedures for the representation of geographical names for places and features outside the UK, excluding those of the Antarctic. For names of international maritime features beyond any sovereignty, PCGN usually advises reflecting the common English conventional name, which for this body of water is the 'Gulf of Mexico'.

What steps her Department is taking to reform business rates to reduce the financial burden on small high street businesses in Newton Abbot constituency.

The Government is creating a fairer business rates system that protects the high street, supports investment, and is fit for the 21st century. At Autumn Budget 2024, we took the first step with the announcement of permanently lower tax rates for the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure properties that make up the backbone of our high streets, from 2026-27. Ahead of these changes being made, the Government recognises that businesses will need support in 2025-26. As such, we have prevented the current RHL relief from ending in April 2025, extending it for one year at 40 per cent up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business, and we have frozen the small business multiplier.The Budget announcements reflect the Government’s first steps to support the high street. We want to go further to modernise the system, and so, we have published a Discussion Paper setting out priority areas for reform. This paper invites industry to help co-design a fairer business rates system that supports investment and is fit for the 21st century. In summer, the Government will publish an interim report that sets out a clear direction of travel for the business rates system, with further policy detail to follow at Autumn Budget 2025.

If he will take steps to amend the Care Act 2014 to exempt infected blood compensation scheme payments from (a) residential and (b) domiciliary care charges.

My Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, does not consider that the Care Act 2014 needs to be amended to exempt Infected Blood Compensation Scheme payments because, under the Care and Support (Charging and Assessment of Resources) Regulations 2014, local authorities must disregard any payments from an approved blood scheme when carrying out a financial assessment relating to charges for residential or non-residential care. An approved blood scheme is a scheme approved by the Secretary of State, or trust established with funds provided by the Secretary of State, to provide compensation in respect of a person having been infected from contaminated blood or blood products. The Infected Blood Compensation Scheme as set out in the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme Regulations 2024 is an approved blood scheme.

Whether her Department plans to introduce a £30 cap on school uniform items.

Too many families still tell us that the cost of school uniform remains a financial burden. ​This is why the department has introduced legislation to limit the number of branded items of uniform and PE kit that schools can require to bring down costs for parents and remove barriers from children accessing sport and other school activities.The department has no plans to introduce a £30 cap on school uniform items. For schools this would mean having to review uniform policies regularly to ensure the uniform items were still within the cost cap and so lead to more frequent uniform changes. For parents this could increase the overall number of items they have to buy whilst their child is at school, limit the ability to pass items down to siblings or to buy second hand uniform, and reduce choice by increasing reliance on specific suppliers.The department wants to ensure that any action we take to reduce the cost of uniform provides schools and parents with clarity and offers parents choice in how to manage the cost of school uniform. Ensuring parents can buy more items from a range of retailers gives them that flexibility.

If she will hold discussions with the Trussell Trust on her proposed (a) changes to the Personal Independence Payment and (b) other welfare reforms.

We are committed to putting the views and voices of disabled people and people with health conditions at the heart of everything we do. In the Green Paper, we have announced that we will set up collaboration committees to develop parts of our reforms further. This will involve bringing together disabled people and other experts with civil servants around specific issues to collaborate, provide ideas, challenge, and input into recommendations. We will continue discussions with disability stakeholders including the Trussell Trust on the proposed changes to the Personal Independence Payment benefit and other welfare reforms.

If the Government will establish a supplementary route to claim for autonomy, social impact, and injury awards outside the core route of the infected blood compensation scheme.

The scope of the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme’s supplementary route is in line with the recommendations Sir Robert Francis KC made to the Government in August 2024. In his report, Sir Robert discussed the merits of expanding the supplementary route to heads of loss beyond care and financial loss. Sir Robert concluded it would likely be disproportionate for applicants and the scheme to do so and the supplementary route should instead focus on recognising the substantive additional care needs and financial loss of applicants. The Government accepted Sir Robert’s recommendation that, with the exception of autonomy awards to victims of unethical research, supplementary route awards should only be available for care and financial loss.

With reference to the Spring Statement 2025, whether she has had discussions with Cabinet colleagues on the potential impact of welfare reforms on costs to the NHS.

The Chancellor discussed welfare reforms with Cabinet colleagues in the usual way ahead of the publication of the Pathways to Work Green Paper and Spring Statement 2025. As the Chancellor and the Work and Pensions Secretary have set out, these reforms will make the benefits system more pro work, and putting it on a more fiscally sustainable trajectory so that it can continue to protect the most vulnerable. The Government is committed through its Plan to Change to getting the NHS back on its feet and has prioritised investment into it through a £22.6bn increase in resource spending for DHSC from 23/24 to 25/26.

What steps her Department is taking to reform business rates to reduce the financial burden on small high street businesses.

The Government is creating a fairer business rates system that protects the high street, supports investment, and is fit for the 21st century. At Autumn Budget 2024, we took the first step with the announcement of permanently lower tax rates for the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure properties that make up the backbone of our high streets, from 2026-27. Ahead of these changes being made, the Government recognises that businesses will need support in 2025-26. As such, we have prevented the current RHL relief from ending in April 2025, extending it for one year at 40 per cent up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business, and we have frozen the small business multiplier.The Budget announcements reflect the Government’s first steps to support the high street. We want to go further to modernise the system, and so, we have published a Discussion Paper setting out priority areas for reform. This paper invites industry to help co-design a fairer business rates system that supports investment and is fit for the 21st century. In summer, the Government will publish an interim report that sets out a clear direction of travel for the business rates system, with further policy detail to follow at Autumn Budget 2025.

How many complaints her Department has received on (a) glare and (b) dazzle caused by LED headlights in the last 12 months.

The Department for Transport does not routinely categorise or record the number of cases where correspondence is received complaining about specific issues. However, based on a manual review of records, in the 12 months up to 22 April the department has received 69 items of correspondence citing “glare” from road vehicles and 9 items citing “dazzle” from road vehicles.

Whether she plans to raise the VAT registration threshold in line with inflation to support small businesses.

At £90,000, the UK has a higher VAT registration threshold than any EU country and the joint highest in the OECD. This keeps the majority of businesses out of the VAT regime altogether.Any consideration of changes to the threshold would have to carefully balance potential impacts on small businesses, the economy as a whole, and tax revenues. Tax breaks reduce the revenue available for public services and must represent value for money for the taxpayer.

With reference to the Spring Statement 2025, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of welfare reforms on demand for food banks.

Since 2021, food bank use has been measured in official statistics by the number of individuals living in families that have used foodbanks in the past 30 days and 12 months. These are published on Stat-Xplore ( https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/), including breakdowns by Economic Status of the Adult, in the Households Below Average Income dataset. The latest statistics were published on 21 March 2025 and are for the financial year 2023/24. We monitor this data closely. We are committed to tackling food poverty and ending mass dependence of emergency food parcels. To inform this work, DWP officials have engaged with a range of organisations to better understand the complex food poverty landscape. We also continue to provide substantial funding to Local Authorities to support those most in need and are extending the Household Support Fund (HSF) by a further year until March 2026, providing funding of £742 million in England. This will ensure low-income households can continue to access support towards the cost of essentials, such as food.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) increasing Employment Allowance and (b) reducing National Insurance contributions for small businesses.

The Government has taken necessary decisions to fix the public finances and create long-term stability in which businesses can invest and thrive.The Government decided to protect the smallest businesses from the changes to Employer NICs announced at the last Budget by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500. This means that this year, 865,000 employers will pay no NICs at all, and more than half of all employers will either gain or will see no change. It means employers will be able to employ up to four full-time workers on the National Living Wage without paying employer NICs.

What steps he is taking to ensure Infected Blood Compensation Authority caseworkers and assessors are suitably trained to interpret complex medical records when determining compensation awards.

Dedicated claim managers are supporting individuals through the claim process and, depending on the data available to the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA), there may be some instances in which more information is asked for to complete a claim. In those instances, IBCA may be able to help source that information to relieve the burden on the person making the claim. I visited the IBCA team led by Sir Robert Francis earlier this year. I saw how determined they are for compensation to be paid out to victims as soon as possible. Additionally, all claims managers employed since October 2024 have received three weeks of trauma-informed training for the role.

Whether her Department plans to enforce statutory guidance on the cost of school uniforms.

The guidance on the cost of school uniforms is statutory and schools must have regard to it when designing and implementing their uniform policies. We expect all schools to now be compliant.If parents are concerned about the cost of their child’s school uniform, they should raise this with the school, including through the school’s published complaints process where necessary.If a parent is unhappy with the outcome of their complaint, they can raise this with the department. We will consider whether the uniform policy meets the requirements of the guidance.

What fiscal steps she plans to take to support small businesses with (a) energy prices, (b) inflation and (c) business rates.

At Autumn Budget the Government announced it was freezing the small businesses multiplier for 2025-26, and extending the retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) business rates relief for 1-year at 40% (up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business). This means over a million properties will be protected from inflationary increases. In summer, the Government will publish an interim report that sets out a clear direction of travel for the business rates system, with further policy detail to follow at Autumn Budget 2025. On energy prices, the Government supports businesses with electricity costs through the British Industrial Energy Supercharger. This is targeted towards businesses that are simultaneously more exposed to competition through trade and more impacted by higher energy prices. Currently the scheme saves businesses approximately 34% on electricity costs. The Bank of England has responsibility for sustainably returning inflation to the 2% target, and the Government is supporting them to control inflation by reducing borrowing year on year from 2025-26 and meeting the fiscal rules.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will implement the provisions of the Environment Act 2021 to establish a due diligence regime for forest risk commodities before COP30.

The UK strongly supports global efforts to protect forests, including advocating for the international commitment to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030, while supporting livelihoods and economic development. We will set out our approach to addressing deforestation in the UK’s supply chains in due course.

Whether people eligible for the infected blood compensation scheme will retain access to (a) disability grants, (b) dependent children payments and (c) other support scheme benefits.

Any payments received from the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme are disregarded from means tested benefit assessments. This means that compensation payments made through the Scheme will not adversely impact on the means tested benefits received by either infected or affected people. Those currently on the Infected Blood Support Schemes will continue to receive their discretionary payments until they receive a compensation offer from IBCA. The compensation will take into account any discretionary payments received under the support schemes when calculating a compensation award.