Written questions by Anderson.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to tackle pockets of deprivation in rural local authority areas.

The 2025-26 Local Government Finance Settlement begins to fix the foundations of local government by targeting additional funding to places with greatest need and demand for services (using deprivation as a proxy for this), and less ability to raise income locally, through a new Recovery Grant, worth £600 million. Through the Settlement, places with a significant rural population will on average receive almost a 6% increase in their Core Spending Power next year, which is a real terms increase. Broader redistribution of funding will follow from 2026-27 and we are committed to fundamentally reforming how we assess need to ensure funding is distributed to where it is needed most. The government will use the best available evidence to assess differences in the need for local government services – including deprivation – and resources available to local authorities.

What steps he is taking to increase the long-term sustainability of the hospice sector.

Palliative care services are included in the list of services an Integrated Care Board (ICB) must commission. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.Whilst the majority of palliative and end of life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices, also play in providing support to people at the end of life and their loved ones.In recognition of this, we are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for adult and children’s hospices in England for 2024/25 and 2025/26, to ensure they have the best physical environment for care.Additionally, children and young people’s hospices will receive £26 million in revenue funding for 2025/26. This is a continuation of the funding which until recently was known as the Children and Young People’s Hospice Grant.  As part of the work to develop the 10-Year Health Plan, we will be carefully considering policies, including those that impact people with palliative and end of life care needs, with input from the public, patients, health staff, and our partners, including those in the hospice sector.In February, I met with key palliative and end of life care and hospice stakeholders, in a roundtable format, with a focus on long-term sector sustainability within the context of our 10-Year Health Plan.

What steps he is taking to improve access to NHS dental care in South Shropshire constituency.

The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term, we will reform the dental contract with the sector, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) across England. For the South Shropshire constituency, this is the NHS Shropshire, Telford, and Wrekin ICB. ICBs have been asked to start making extra urgent dental appointments available from April 2025. The Shropshire, Telford, and Wrekin ICB is expected to deliver 7,408 additional urgent dental appointments as part of the scheme.

What steps she has taken to increase awareness of the availability of Pension Credit in rural areas.

The Government wants all pensioners to get the support to which they are rightly entitled. That is why we ran the biggest ever Pension Credit take-up campaign across the whole of Great Britain. This included adverts on television; radio (including Greatest Hits Radio Black Country & Shropshire, Hits Radio Black Country & Shropshire, Classic FM Midlands, Smooth Radio); social media; on YouTube; on advertising screens in Pharmacies, Post Offices and leisure centres. The campaign also featured on train advertising panels as well as in national and regional press (including the Shropshire Star).As part of the campaign, the Department engaged with all councils in Great Britain, through the regular Local Authority Welfare Direct bulletins. Shropshire Council supported the Pension Credit campaign during our ‘Week of Action’ in September 2024, and on social media.More recently, around 11 million pensioners will have received a leaflet promoting Pension Credit along with their State Pension uprating letter.Further campaign and promotional activity is planned for this year.The latest Pension Credit applications and awards statistics were published on 27 February and are available at: Pension Credit applications and awards: February 2025 - GOV.UK(opens in a new tab). The statistics show that the Department made almost 50,000 extra awards on the comparable period in 2023/24.

Whether funding will be allocated to roll out hotspot policing in rural areas.

This Government has awarded £66.3m in 2025/26 to all 43 Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) in England and Wales for the Hot Spot Action Fund. This funding is for high-visibility patrolling in the areas with the highest densities (‘hotspots’) of knife crime and anti-social behaviour, as well as problem-oriented policing to tackle the longer-term drivers of crime.This funding can be used to roll-out hotspot policing in rural areas if the area has a high density of knife crime and anti-social behaviour relative to the force area. Where funding is specifically targeted is an operational decision for individual PCCs and police forces. West Mercia Police (which includes South Shropshire) has been awarded £1m from this fund in 2025/26.We are also providing over £800,000 in 25/26 for the National Rural Crime Unit and National Wildlife Crime Unit. This funding will support police forces to tackle rural and wildlife crimes, including organised theft and disrupting serious and organised crime groups.

What steps he has taken to support access to orthopaedic care for veterans.

Veterans with an orthopaedic condition related to their time in service can ask their general practitioner to refer them to Op RESTORE. Op RESTORE is an integrated physical health and wellbeing service, and works to ensure that veterans are seen in the right clinical pathway by the right clinician. Op RESTORE works in collaboration with many military charities to provide veterans with wellbeing support to ensure they ‘wait well’ for treatment.The Government recognises that some veterans may not wish to use bespoke services for veterans, and in some cases orthopaedic conditions may occur that are not attributable to their time in service. In these instances, veterans are able to access the full range of mainstream orthopaedic services commissioned by their local National Health Service integrated care board. As well as local NHS hospitals, this includes local arrangements with the independent sector and supporting services, such as diagnostics and physiotherapy provided by musculoskeletal services, to ensure care is provided as close to the veteran’s home as possible.

Whether a Minister for Veterans Affairs will be appointed.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer the Prime Minister gave to Question 124 on 24 July 2024.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to increase the (a) skills and (b) capacity of planning authorities in rural areas.

Supporting local planning authorities to attract, retain and develop skilled planners is crucial to ensuring they provide a proactive, efficient planning service for local communities and that new developments are well designed and facilitate local growth. The government appreciates that planning departments across the country, including in rural areas, are experiencing challenges with recruitment, retention, and skills gaps and that in many cases these issues are having a negative impact on service delivery. At the Budget, the Chanceller announced a £46 million package of investment into the planning system as a one-year settlement for 2025-2026. Our manifesto committed us to appointing 300 new planning officers into LPAs. We are on track to meet that commitment through two routes, namely graduate recruitment through the Pathways to Planning scheme run by the Local Government Association and mid-career recruitment through Public Practice. On 27 February, the government announced funding to support salaries and complement graduate bursaries. Further information can be found in the Written Ministerial Statement I made on 27 February 2025 (HCWS480). On 25 February, the draft Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications, Requests and Site Visits) (England) (Amendment and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2025 were agreed. These regulations increase planning fees for householder and other applications, with a view to providing much-needed additional resources for hard-pressed LPAs. More broadly, the Department’s established Planning Capacity and Capability programme is also developing a wider programme of support, working with partners across the planning sector, to ensure that LPAs have the skills and capacity they need, both now and in the future, to modernise local plans and speed up decision making, including through innovative use of digital planning data and software. Lastly, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill which was introduced on 11 March includes provisions that will allow LPAs to set planning fees or charges at a level that reflects the individual costs to the LPA to carry out the function for which it is imposed and to ensure that the income from planning fees or charges is applied towards the delivery of the planning function.

Media and Sport, what funding her Department is providing for the renovation of multi-use sports pitches.

The Government provides the majority of our funding for grassroots sport through our Arm’s Length Body, Sport England, which invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding each year.We also deliver funding to support multi-use sport pitches through the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme. In March the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport announced an additional £100 million would be invested through the programme. Our funding is delivered through the Football Foundation in England and further detail on funded projects will be published on gov.uk in due course.Future funding for grassroots facilities beyond 2025/26 is subject to the ongoing Spending Review.

Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the TV licence increase on household budgets.

In April 2025 the level of the licence fee increased in line with inflation, as set out in the 2022 Licence Fee Settlement that was reached under the previous government. The increase will mean that TV licence costs £5 more per year for households than in 2024/25. This uplift provides certainty and stability for the BBC and S4C, and supports them in delivering their essential public services remits and world-class educational and engaging programming, while also ensuring we deliver the best outcomes for licence fee payers.The government recognises there is pressure on households and to support those most in need, has taken action to expand the Simple Payment Plan to help more households facing financial hardship pay their TV licence.

What fiscal steps she is taking to support small businesses in (a) South Shropshire and (b) other rural communities.

At Autumn Budget 2024, the Government announced tax reforms to support small businesses, including: more than doubling the employment allowance to £10,500; commitments in the Corporate Tax Roadmap to maintain the Small Profits Rate and marginal relief at their current rates and thresholds; and freezing the small businesses multiplier for 2025/26. The Government also announced changes to inheritance tax, including reforms to business property relief (BPR). The Government has protected smaller family businesses from BPR changes, with the first £1 million of business assets continuing to receive 100% relief and then 50% thereafter. The Government has committed £250m in 2025-26 for the British Business Bank’s small business loans programmes, including Start Up Loans and the Growth Guarantee Scheme. We have extended funding for Growth Hubs across England in 2025-26. Businesses in your constituency can access the Shropshire Growth Hub for free advice, support, and signposting to other Government services.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he has taken to increase export opportunities for UK farmers and food producers.

The Government will always seek new opportunities to grow the UK’s world class agri-food and drinks sector. We are working to agree a Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement with the European Union to make agrifood trade with our biggest market cheaper and easier, cutting costs and red tape for British producers and retailers. Our network of sixteen agri-food and drink attachés work to resolve export barriers around the world. Last year we resolved an export barrier nearly every week, including securing access to the US market for UK beetroot growers and resuming pork exports to China for major UK producers, which industry estimates are worth £80 million. We are committed to working in partnership with food and drink manufacturers to continue to capitalise on strong demand for UK produce around the world.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help retailers distribute surplus food to local charities.

The Government recognises the environmental, economic and social benefits of preventing food waste and redistributing surplus. Defra's Food and Drink Waste Hierarchy encourages food businesses, including retailers, to prioritise redistribution of any surplus should it arise. Defra funds the groundbreaking UK Food and Drink Pact, a voluntary agreement with industry to tackle food waste, managed by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP). Through the Pact, we support the Food Waste Reduction Roadmap, which helps businesses to identify and measure their surplus and waste and take steps to reduce it. This Target Measure Act approach enables food businesses to get more surplus to redistributors. Defra also engages a working group of supply chain and redistribution sector organisations to develop best practice and overcome barriers to redistribution. Previous grant opportunities have helped the redistribution sector increase its capability and capacity for getting more surplus from the supply chain. Announced in December, £15 million has now been available to help the sector get more surplus food from farms to those in need. The total amount of surplus food redistributed in the UK in 2023 was 191,000 tonnes, equating to nearly 456 million meals with a value of around £764 million.

What steps she is taking to help return inflation to the target rate.

Inflation has fallen from the peak of 11.1%, returning to the 2% target in September 2024, before slightly increasing again to 2.6% in March. The Bank of England has the responsibility of controlling inflation, and the Government fully supports them as they take action to sustainably return inflation to the 2% target. The independent Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) at the Bank of England has cut Bank Rate three times since August as underlying inflationary pressure has eased.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to reduce food waste.

The UK is an international leader on tackling food waste. We are fully committed to meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 target, which seeks to halve global food waste at consumer and retail levels by 2030. Through our new £15 million farm surplus fund, this Government is working with food producers and charities ensure more produce gets to those who need it most. We know that action is required across the supply chain and in people’s homes. To tackle food waste, we fund the groundbreaking UK Food and Drink Pact, a voluntary agreement with industry managed by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP). Action through the Pact includes working with businesses to identify and reduce food waste, as well as campaigns aimed at raising public awareness of food waste and the steps we can all take to help reduce it.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to support the renovation of (a) village halls and (b) community centres.

Community centres and village halls are important parts of our social fabric in towns and villages across the UK. Through the English Devolution Bill, we will introduce a new Community Right to Buy to help local people acquire valued community spaces, which will help to bring them back into use and rejuvenate high streets across the country. We have also announced a further £750,000 as a 1-year extension to the £3 million Platinum Jubilee Village Halls Fund for 2025/2026. This will support the modernisation or improvement of village hall facilities by providing capital grants between £2000 and £75,000, up to a maximum of 20 per cent of eligible project costs. Since 2022, it has supported 142 large projects (£7,500 to £75,000) and 90 small projects (£2000 to £5000).

Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to promote the National Youth Strategy survey in rural areas.

Our engagement for the National Youth Survey has proactively involved young people from urban and rural areas, as well as across a number of different demographic considerations.In order to reach young people in all areas of the country, we developed a communications campaign and worked with a variety of stakeholders who support young people to disseminate information. We developed a toolkit for organisations to run their own consultation workshops with young people to feed in their views. In addition to this, we have run a wide-ranging survey, workshops, focus groups and ‘hacks’ to give young people the opportunity to develop solutions.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of restricting eligibility for Winter Fuel Payments on levels of pensioner poverty in rural areas.

The last Labour Government lifted over one million pensioners out of poverty, and this Government – despite having to make the tough decisions to deal with our dire inheritance remains absolutely committed to supporting pensioners and giving them the dignity and security they deserve in retirement. Winter Fuel Payments will continue to be paid to pensioner households with someone receiving Pension Credit or other qualifying means-tested benefits or tax credits. They will continue to be worth £200 for eligible households, or £300 for eligible households with someone aged 80 or over. The latest Pension Credit applications and awards statistics were published on 27 February and are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/pension-credit-applications-and-awards-february-2025/pension-credit-applications-and-awards-february-2025 The statistics show that the Department received 235,000 Pension Credit applications in the 30 weeks since the Winter Fuel Payment announcement – an 81% increase on the comparable period in 2023/24 and made 117,800 new Pension Credit awards – a 64% increase or 45,800 extra awards on the comparable period in 2023/24. We are honouring our commitment to the Triple Lock. In April, the basic and new State Pensions increased by 4.1% and some 12 million pensioners will see an increase of up to £470 over this financial year. Our commitment to the Triple Lock also means that spending on State Pensions is forecast to rise by around £31 billion over this Parliament. And while the State Pension is the foundation of state support for older people, other help is also available for low-income pensioners. This includes Cold Weather Payments in England & Wales; help with energy bills via the Warm Home Discount scheme as well as the Household Support Fund in England which we extended for a further year with funding of £742 million, with corresponding funding for the Devolved Governments through the Barnett formula.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help farmers affected by the outbreak of avian flu.

Following the detection of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in poultry and other captive birds in the UK, Defra and the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) together with the Devolved Governments and their delivery agencies have stood up their well-established outbreak structures to control and eradicate disease, restore normal trade, and assist local communities’ recovery. Defra’s avian influenza disease control measures aim to minimise the economic burden of the outbreak on the food and farming sectors, bird keepers and the wider economy. As part of this approach, Defra introduced legislation in January this year which allows free-range eggs to continue to be labelled as such for the duration of mandatory housing measures, reducing costs on producers and enabling them to continue to trade fairly with imported eggs. We will be introducing similar legislation covering free-range poultry later this year. The Department works closely with both the poultry industry and wider bird keeping stakeholders and the impacts of the avian influenza outbreak are being monitored closely. Where avian influenza is confirmed on a premises, the producer receives compensation for any healthy birds culled for disease control purposes. Compensation is not available for sick birds or those that have died, or for consequential losses e.g. lost sales opportunities.

What progress she has made on launching a new National Music Education Network.

On 18 March, the department announced its intention to launch a new National Centre for Arts and Music Education.We intend to appoint the delivery partner for the Centre through an open, competitive procurement. We will engage with sector stakeholders to refine the details of the Centre ahead of the commercial process later this year. We will set out further detail shortly.The National Centre will deliver on the manifesto commitment to deliver a Music Education Network. The department’s intention is to launch the National Centre in September 2026.