Written questions by Bool.

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 30 April 2025 to Question 47160 on Food: Import Controls, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the ban on personal imports of meats and diary products from EU countries.

Defra publishes assessments of the risk of animal diseases entering Great Britain through trade in animal products at www.gov.uk/government/collections/animal-diseases-international-monitoring. Our August 2025 attitude tracker demonstrated a high level of public awareness of the animal health-related ban on personal imports of certain meat and dairy products from EU countries amongst recent travellers.

Pursuant to the Answer of 17 July 2025 to Question 67788 on Prescriptions: Terminal Illnesses, how much revenue was raised from the 50,330 Penalty Charge Notices.

Between 1 June 2024 and 1 July 2025, a total of £980,266.02 was recovered from the 50,330 people who were issued Penalty Charge Notices for incorrectly claiming a medical exemption from prescription charges.

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 30 April 2025 to Question 47160 on Food: Import Controls, how many seizures have been conducted related to the ban on personal imports of meats and diary products from EU countries.

We do not have information on the number of seizures relating to the ban on personal imports of certain meat and dairy products from EU countries. Border Force and local authorities are responsible for detaining and seizing illegally imported animal products detected at the border, where importers refuse to surrender them for disposal.

Pursuant to the Answer of 17 July 2025 to Question 67788 on Prescriptions: Terminal Illnesses, whether the 50,330 Penalty Charge Notices were issued as separate individual cases; and how many were issued to the same individuals for repeat offences.

Overall, 55,347 Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) were issued to 50,330 individuals for incorrectly claiming a medical exemption from prescription charges between 1 June 2024 and 1 July 2025. Of these, 4,339 individuals received multiple PCNs, while 45,991 received a single PCN.

What tests his Department applies when assessing the necessity of the use of best and most valuable land in a Development Consent Order application.

The National Policy Statement for Energy (EN-1) and the National Policy Statement for Renewable Energy Infrastructure (EN-3) detail the Secretary of State’s considerations regarding the necessity of Best and Most Versatile (BMV) agricultural land. EN-1 notes at 5.11.12 that the Applicants should seek to minimise impacts on the BMV agricultural land (grades 1, 2 and 3a) and preferably use land in areas of poorer quality (grades 3b, 4 and 5). EN-1 notes at 5.11.34 that the Secretary of State should ensure that applicants do not site their scheme on the BMV agricultural land without justification, and where schemes are to be sited on BMV agricultural land the Secretary of State should take into account the economic and other benefits of that land.

Pursuant to the Answer of 17 July 2025 to Question 67788 on Prescriptions: Terminal Illnesses,, how many enquiry letters were to individuals regarding incorrectly claiming medical exemption from NHS prescription charges in this period.

Between 1 June 2024 and 30 June 2025, a total of 67,777 enquiry letters were issued in relation to National Health Service prescriptions for which a medical exemption certificate had been claimed.

What steps he is taking to ensure that the upcoming National Cancer Plan addresses challenges relating to delayed diagnosis for unstageable cancers.

It is a priority for the Government to support the National Health Service to diagnose cancer, including blood cancers such as myeloma, as well as other unstageable cancers, as early and quickly as possible, and to treat it faster, in order to improve outcomes.To tackle late diagnoses of blood cancers, the NHS is implementing non-specific symptom pathways for patients who present with symptoms such as weight loss and fatigue, which do not clearly align to a tumour type. Blood cancers are one of the most common cancer types diagnosed through these pathways.We will get the NHS diagnosing blood cancer earlier and treating it faster, and we will support the NHS to increase capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment, including for magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scanners.The National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients, including speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, and ultimately drive up this country’s cancer survival rates.

Pursuant to the Answer of 18 July 2025 to Question 67790 on Diabetes: Screening, when he expects the UK National Screening Committee to complete the review of the 2024 submission on autoimmune type 1 diabetes screening through blood testing.

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) is currently awaiting the outcome of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) assessment of the drug teplizumab, which is expected in November.Once the NICE recommendation on teplizumab has been published, the UK NSC will look again at the 2024 annual call submission on autoimmune type 1 diabetes screening through blood testing and will consider whether a fresh review of the evidence for type 1 diabetes screening should be undertaken.

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 30 April 2025 to Question 47160 on Food: Import Controls, what steps he has taken to ensure the adequacy of signage at ports and airports relating to the ban on personal imports of meats and diary products from EU countries.

As part of our national mission to protect our food sector and farmers, we communicated the ban on personal imports of certain meats and dairy products from EU countries via a press release, social media and information on GOV.UK. We have worked in partnership with the Department of Transport, the Home Office, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, ports, airports and international travel operators to communicate the ban. We published updated posters on gov.uk for operational partners to display. Baroness Hayman met with ports, airports and international travel operators to discuss the communications, including signage, that they put in place.

What discussions he has had with his counterpart in the Scottish Government on including aplastic anaemia on NHS Inform.

Working under the United Kingdom Rare Diseases Framework, the Government is committed to improving the lives of those living with rare diseases, such as aplastic anaemia.Collaboration at all levels across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales remains an underpinning priority. The Department works closely with colleagues across the devolved nations to ensure policy on rare disease is aligned across the UK, and that we share best practice and areas of learning.

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 11 June 2025 to Question 56079 on Agriculture: Land Use, what the geographic distribution of the land with solar panels on that is used for agricultural production is.

The statistics are based on results from the annual Defra June Survey of Agriculture and Horticulture. This survey covers England but no lower geographic breakdowns are available. The number of responses to the question was too small to give accurate estimates at any lower level than England only.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential contribution of warehouse rooftop solar installations to the UK’s 2035 solar capacity target.

The Government is aware of the significant potential that commercial rooftops have in our mission to make the UK a clean energy superpower. We are working to unlock this potential. The recently published Solar Roadmap sets out actions for government and industry including developing guidance for landlords and tenants to traverse the complex lease agreements that often hold back sector enthusiasm for rooftop solar deployment.We will convene a joint government / industry Solar Council to monitor progress and drive delivery of the actions in the Roadmap. Additionally, solar will play an important role in the Future Buildings Standard for new build non-domestic buildings due to be introduced later this year, and the UK’s overall approach to Net Zero commercial buildings will be set out in the government’s Warm Homes Plan strategy later this year.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of extending the Armed Forces Covenant Duty on her departmental responsibilities.

The department has a long-standing commitment to uphold the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant and support the education of children and young people from military families within the state-funded education system in England.The department is supportive of the extension of the Armed Forces Covenant, and officials have liaised with the Ministry of Defence on plans to improve and extend key policies that target support for service pupils and their families.

Pursuant to the Answer of 17 July 2025 to Question 67788 on Prescriptions: Terminal Illnesses, how many of the people who received one of the 50,330 Penalty Charge Notices issued for incorrectly claiming medical exemption from NHS prescription charges have never been in possession of a medical exemption certificate.

The information requested is not held in the format requested, as it could only be obtained at disproportionate cost through manual matching of data from multiple unlinked data sources.

Pursuant to the Answer of 17 July 2025 to Question 67788 on Prescriptions: Terminal Illnesses, how many of the individuals who received one of the 50,330 Penalty Charge Notices issued for incorrectly claiming medical exemption from NHS prescription charges were in possession of an exemption certificate within the previous 12 months.

The information requested is not held in the format requested, as it could only be obtained at disproportionate cost through manual matching of data from multiple unlinked data sources.

Pursuant to the Answer of 17 July 2025 to Question 67788 on Prescriptions: Terminal Illnesses, how many of the 50,330 Penalty Charge Notices issued for incorrectly claiming medical exemption from NHS prescription charges were paid.

Overall, 55,347 Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) were issued to 50,330 individuals for incorrectly claiming a medical exemption from NHS prescription charges in the period 1 June 2024 to 1 July 2025. 32,724 PCNs have had a payment made against them.

What steps his Department is taking to accelerate the deployment of rooftop solar panels on commercial warehouses as part of the Solar Taskforce roadmap.

The Government is aware of the significant potential that commercial rooftops have in our mission to make the UK a clean energy superpower. We are working to unlock this potential. The recently published Solar Roadmap sets out actions for government and industry including developing guidance for landlords and tenants to traverse the complex lease agreements that often hold back sector enthusiasm for rooftop solar deployment.We will convene a joint government / industry Solar Council to monitor progress and drive delivery of the actions in the Roadmap. Additionally, solar will play an important role in the Future Buildings Standard for new build non-domestic buildings due to be introduced later this year, and the UK’s overall approach to Net Zero commercial buildings will be set out in the government’s Warm Homes Plan strategy later this year.

What tests his Department applies when assessing the prioritisation of the best and most valuable land in a Development Consent Order application.

The National Policy Statement for Energy (EN-1) and the National Policy Statement for Renewable Energy Infrastructure (EN-3) detail the Secretary of State’s considerations regarding the prioritisation of Best and Most Versatile (BMV) agricultural land. EN-1 notes at 5.11.12 that Applicants should seek to minimise impacts on the BMV agricultural land (grades 1, 2 and 3a) and preferably use land in areas of poorer quality (grades 3b, 4 and 5). EN-1 notes at 5.11.34 that the Secretary of State should ensure that applicants do not site their scheme on the BMV agricultural land without justification, and where schemes are to be sited on BMV agricultural land the Secretary of State should take into account the economic and other benefits of that land.

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 11 June 2025 to Question 56079 on Agriculture: Land Use, what assessment he has made of the accuracy of the statistic that 50% of land with solar panels on is used for agricultural production.

The statistics are estimates from the annual Defra June Survey of Agriculture and Horticulture, a representative large scale sample survey of Defra registered farms* from across the country. Indications of accuracy in the estimates of the area of land with solar panels used/not used for agricultural production are provided below and in the published dataset https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/agricultural-land-use-in-england. 2024 hectares95% confidence intervalRelative Standard ErrorLand for solar panels also used for grazing or agricultural production3,620+/- 1,192>10 and <=20%Land for solar panels not used for agricultural production3,683+/- 1,249>10 and <=20% The Relative Standard Error (RSE) is a measure of the variation in the data, expressed as a percentage of the estimated total. Low RSE’s indicate greater reliability in the figures. The 95% confidence interval indicates the likely range of the exact figure. The standard errors which underpin both the RSE’s and the 95% confidence intervals only give an indication of the sampling error and do not take into account any other sources of survey error such as non-response bias or data entry errors. *Data only covers holdings which are registered with the Rural Payments Agency for payments or livestock purposes and have significant levels of farming activity. Holdings are only included if they have more than five hectares of agricultural land, one hectare of orchards, 0.5 hectares of vegetables or 0.1 hectares of protected crops, or more than 10 cows, 50 pigs, 20 sheep, 20 goats or 1,000 poultry.

Pursuant to the Answer of 17 July 2025 to Question 67788 on Prescriptions: Terminal Illnesses, how many of the people who received one of the 50,330 Penalty Charge Notices issued for incorrectly claiming medical exemption from NHS prescription charges were previously in possession of an exemption certificate and remained eligible for an exemption certificate.

The information is not held in the format requested, as it could only be obtained at disproportionate cost through manual matching of data from multiple unlinked data sources.