Written questions by Savage.

What information his Department holds on the number of services that have been permanently cut from community hospitals following temporary trials in each year for which information is available.

Decisions about NHS services, including in Cirencester, are best taken at a local level, and the responsibility for the delivery, implementation and funding decisions for services ultimately rests with the appropriate NHS commissioner. All service changes should be based on clear evidence that they will deliver better outcomes for patients. Substantial planned service change should be subject to a full public consultation and meet the Government and NHS England’s ‘tests’ to ensure good decision-making.The Department does not hold information centrally on the number of services that have been permanently decommissioned from community hospitals following temporary trials.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether the upcoming Land Use Framework will include measures to improve public access to nature.

The Government consulted on land use in England from January to April this year. The consultation recognised the importance of increasing responsible access to the outdoors for people’s health and wellbeing. It stated Government’s intention to support access to green and blue spaces in urban and rural environments, and green routes for active travel to and through these spaces. The responses to this consultation, and feedback from supporting workshops, are being analysed. These responses will inform the preparation of the Land Use Framework, which will be published early next year. The Government has also announced, as part of the Environmental Improvement Plan 2025, that we will bring forward an Access to Nature Green Paper to consult on proposals to improve and expand public access to the outdoors.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department will extend the definition of bathers to include other water user types in the context of the Bathing Waters Regulations.

Bathing waters are one of the most visible ways in which the public interacts with the water environment, and so it is critical that appropriate regulations meet the needs of water users and those involved with managing bathing water sites. In the November – December 2024 consultation on bathing water reforms, we asked respondents about wider reforms including the expansion of the definition of ‘bathers’ to include other water users and introducing multiple monitoring points at sites. The Government response to the consultation, published in March 2025, outlined that a clear majority of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed with this proposal and many offered suggestions of what water users should be included. The Department is now exploring how evidence to support the delivery of these wider reforms, including expanding the definition of a bather might be developed. The timeline for detailed policy development and research will depend on the outcome of initial scoping work. Defra will engage with local and national stakeholders as this work progresses.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether she intends to publish a white paper on access to nature.

The Government has announced, as part of the Environmental Improvement Plan 2025, that we will bring forward an Access to Nature Green Paper to consult on proposals to improve and expand public access to the outdoors. The Green Paper will set out a range of policy options and invite views from stakeholders and the public, helping us to gather evidence and test approaches before decisions are made. This consultation will play an important role in shaping the development of future policy in this area.

Whether he will commit extra funding for social prescribing, including to support individuals to engage in nature-based interventions and activities.

The Government has underlined its commitment to taking a preventive approach to address health inequalities.  We are determined to improve people’s physical and mental health to support them to live longer and healthier lives and we recognise the role that social prescribing can play in this.The Department funds social prescribing link workers in primary care through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme.  In March 2025, the Department agreed a further year of grant funding for the National Academy for Social Prescribing, securing £1.5 million to advance and expand social prescribing.  Future funding allocations have yet to be confirmed.The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs leads on green social prescribing and, together with Natural England, has recently invested £300,000 to track the uptake and impact of green social prescribing using primary care data. The evidence will inform future policy for the spread and scale of nature-based health interventions.

Whether her Department has considered introducing an automatic payment option for clean air zone charges nationwide, similar to the system operating in London; and whether she will review the level of penalty charges for late or non-payment to ensure they are proportionate.

Autopay, where a driver could register their vehicle with the service and payment is taken automatically when that vehicle enters a Clean Air Zone, was considered as part of the CAZ digital service user research and design phases. This is not an existing feature of GOV.UK Pay. Autopay was not taken forward at the time because it would have added significant cost and complexity to the service and would have delayed the point at which the service (and therefore the first CAZs) could go live. Penalty Charges for late payment are a matter for local authorities.

What steps he is taking to strengthen (a) national preparedness and (b) resilience for (i) public health and (ii) other national emergencies.

The Government published the Resilience Action Plan on 8 July 2025 to set out its resilience strategy. It set out three core objectives to improve the UK’s resilience to the full range of risks we face: (1) continually assess how resilient the UK is in order to target interventions and resources; (2) enable the whole of society to take action to improve their resilience; and (3) strengthen the core public resilience system. These goals inform a series of activities to deliver greater resilience across the whole of society, as set out in the Resilience Action Plan. The plan includes a commitment to the delivery of the National Exercising Programme (NEP) to improve preparedness for national emergencies. This covers a range of whole-system risks, with the priority areas for testing informed by our assessment of cross-cutting and systemic vulnerabilities and capability gaps. The NEP sets out a timetable of annual Tier 1 exercises requiring a central response, cross-government coordination, and ministerial engagement. We are delivering the UK Biological Security Strategy to strengthen preparedness for future pandemics, and to mitigate the risks of biological accidents and incidents. In Autumn 2025, ‘Exercise PEGASUS’ tested the United Kingdom’s pandemic preparedness, involving every Government Department, the devolved governments, and included arm’s length bodies, local resilience fora, and the engagement of businesses, academics, and external stakeholders.

What conclusions he has come to about the potential risks of foreign investment in our utilities sector.

The Government takes the security and resilience of UK energy infrastructure extremely seriously with the UK being one of the most reliable and safest energy systems, and one of the most attractive investment destinations in the world. Maintaining a secure energy supply is a key priority for the UK Government. We have a range of effective measures in place which give the Government powers to balance an open investment environment to facilitate growth with protecting the areas of our economy that are the most sensitive to national security.

With reference to his correspondence of 10 June 2025, if he will ask the Minister for Energy to meet with the hon. Member for the South Cotswolds.

I have asked my office to contact the hon Member to find an appropriate date.

How much her Department spent on SEND tribunal appeals in the last 12 months.

The department paid His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service £13.471 million in 2024/25 to cover the operational costs of the SEND Tribunal, including administration, estates and salaries, for special educational needs appeals for children and young people aged 5 to 16.

Communities and Local Government, whether he has made an assessment of the development capacity for housing on brownfield sites.

Brownfield (or previously developed) land sites across England vary greatly. As such, local planning authorities are best placed to assess the suitability of individual brownfield sites for redevelopment. National planning policy makes clear that strategic policy-making authorities should have a clear understanding of the land available in their area through the preparation of a strategic housing land availability assessment. From this, planning policies should identify a sufficient supply and mix of sites, taking into account their availability, suitability, and likely economic viability. The government has committed capital funding through the Brownfield Land Release Fund to help overcome challenges to brownfield redevelopment such as viability issues and contamination.

Communities and Local Government, how many planning applications will be exempt from the requirement to replace lost nature under previous biodiversity net gain requirements.

On 28 May 2025, the government published a consultation on improving the implementation of biodiversity net gain for minor, medium and brownfield development which can be found on gov.uk here. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is considering the responses received.

Media and Sport, whether her Department plans to provide funding to the New Brewery Arts in Cirencester through the Arts Everywhere Fund.

The government is making a substantial investment in the cultural sector across England through the £270 million Arts Everywhere Fund, which includes the £85 million Creative Foundations Fund. This fund is specifically designed to address critical infrastructure issues faced by cultural organisations, ensuring their long-term sustainability and ability to continue providing valuable services to communities. The recent Spending Review also secured substantial investment for arts, culture, and heritage infrastructure. This significant financial commitment underscores the government's dedication to supporting the arts, culture, and heritage sectors Arts Council England is responsible for managing the Creative Foundations Fund. They are currently in the process of assessing applications and plan to make their award decisions public, as well as notify all applicants, by the end of March 2026. We understand that New Brewery Arts has previously benefited from an Arts Council England grant.

What recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of the cost of residential and nursing care home fees on older people; and if his Department will take steps to ensure that annual fee increases are transparent.

Fee rates are set by the providers of adult social care, the majority of which are in the independent sector. The Department does not have the power to limit the level of fees that a care home can charge. However, all businesses are required to comply with the Consumer Rights Act 2015 by ensuring that they use fair and clear terms in their standard agreements with customers.The importance of price transparency is set out in Regulation 19 of the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009, which requires that providers give timely and accurate written information about the cost of their care and treatment to the people who use their services.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of National England's decision to not accept complaints on injurious weeds on (a) agriculture and (b) the public.

Advice on the management and control of injurious weeds is published on GOV.UK. Natural England did not accept new weeds complaints in 2025. This was a temporary measure whilst they reviewed the approach to addressing injurious weeds, to improve access to appropriate advice and guidance and ensure enforcement resources are targeted most effectively. The complaints process will reopen as usual in April 2026.

Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of (a) indoor and (b) outdoor mobile coverage in Hullavington, Wiltshire.

Ofcom does not publish mobile coverage data aggregated to specific villages in their Connected Nations reports and data releases. However, your constituents who live or work in Hullavington can access the improved coverage checker, ‘Map Your Mobile’, on the Ofcom website to get information on likely indoor and outdoor mobile coverage at their address.Accurate coverage data being available is crucial to understanding where coverage issues remain and to supporting consumers to make informed decisions about which network offers the best service in their area.All communities should rightly expect to have the connectivity they need to participate in the modern digital economy. This is why it is the government’s ambition that all populated areas should have access to higher quality mobile coverage by 2030.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of (a) the removal of the Direct Pay option and (b) other changes to the Child Maintenance service on the affordability of the system for both parents.

The proposed reforms to remove Direct Pay could result in around 20,000 fewer children in poverty. The reforms will help ensure children receive the financial support they are entitled to by addressing issues with hidden non-compliance within Direct Pay. We know from Direct Pay Research that only 60% of receiving parents reported getting all their money, and only 40% report always getting it on time. Under these reforms, the CMS will manage payments between parents, enabling them to respond quicker where payments breakdown. As part of these changes, we also plan to modify the fee structure making them more affordable for parents already in the current Collect and Pay service. Our published liability data shows that paying parents in the Collect and Pay service tend on average to be on lower incomes that those in Direct Pay. Fees will reduce from 4% to 2% for receiving parents, and from 20% to 2% for compliant paying parents. Non-compliant paying parents will continue to pay a fee of 20%. The Government is also conducting a review of the child maintenance calculation to make sure it is fit for purpose, balancing affordability concerns for both parents with the best outcomes for children and ensuring the calculation is reflective of the costs of raising children today.Any changes made to the child maintenance calculation resulting from this review will be subject to extensive public consultation, which we plan to publish late this year, and if made, will require amendments to legislation so would be subject to Parliamentary scrutiny.

What steps his Department is taking to ensure that Access to Work grants for deaf and hard of hearing people are renewed without interruption; what steps he is taking to ensure that staff administering Access to Work grants provide reasonable adjustments when communicating with deaf and hard of hearing people; and whether he plans to maintain the current level of funding allocation in real terms for Access to Work grants in (i) 2026/27 and (ii) 2027/28.

To ensure Access to Work grants are renewed without interruption for our deaf and hard of hearing customers several measures have already been put in place, including streamlining our delivery processes and recruiting additional staff. We have also taken steps to modernise the Access to Work customer journey, with all core parts of the Scheme fully digital from April 2024. There is a variety of contact methods which customers can utilise. These include telephone, textphone, Video Relay Service and email as a reasonable adjustment. Where a customer would like to use email to contact the department as a reasonable adjustment, they should let the Access to Work team know so the Case Manager can follow the appropriate procedure to ensure we can try to accommodate the request. Details can be found at Access to Work: factsheet for customers - GOV.UK Funding has been secured to continue the Access to Work scheme throughout the Spending Review period.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of compliance by water companies with their statutory obligations to maintain accurate digital maps of (a) potable water mains, (b) service reservoirs and (c) isolation valves in rural areas.

The Government is preparing to respond to the recommendations of the Independent Water Commission, including on the extent and enforcement of current water industry mapping requirements. Reforms outlined in this response will form the basis of a new water reform bill to be introduced early in this Parliament.

If she will make it her policy for schools to (a) appoint a designated young carers lead and (b) implement a (i) flagging and (ii) registration scheme for young carers.

The statutory guidance 'Keeping Children Safe in Education' states that all school staff should be alert to the potential need for early help for young carers and requires designated safeguarding leads to be trained to understand and respond to their needs, ensuring young carers are supported to thrive in school.We have no plans to introduce a registration scheme for young carers. Local authorities have a statutory duty to identify young carers who may need support and undertake a needs assessment where support may be needed, or upon request.To further improve visibility and support, young carers were added to the school census as a distinct group in 2022/23. This has increased their visibility in the school system, providing valuable demographic data and insights into their educational outcomes.Further, Ofsted’s new education inspection framework references young carers when assessing the impact of a school’s work on attendance, behaviour, personal development and wellbeing of disadvantaged pupils.