Written questions by Munt.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to remove end-of-life tyres from the green list waste category under the Waste Shipment Regulations.

The export of waste tyres is subject to controls set out in existing UK legislation. The Environment Agency (EA) has recently completed a review into its approach for regulating the export of waste tyres. As a result of this, the EA has launched enhanced verification checks for all waste tyres exported to India to ensure they are handled in an environmentally sound manner. The EA intends to publish a further update on their work, including further information relating to the enhanced verification checks, in early 2026. Defra officials will continue to keep the situation under review.

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 22 January 2026 to Question 106499 on Tyres: Waste Disposal, how many of the 1,891 applications for an Annex VII document originated from exporters or businesses operating under a T8 exemption.

Of the 1,891 Annex VII documents received by the Environment Agency regarding the export of waste tyres between 28 October and 15 December 2025, 605 are from sites that have a T8 exemption.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to extend the enhanced verification procedure for the export of end-of-life tyres beyond April 2026.

The Environment Agency will publish further information on the enhanced verification checks in Spring 2026.

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 22 January 2026 to Question 106499 on Tyres: Waste Disposal, how many Annex VII documents were submitted late for which the latest data is available.

The Environment Agency has received a total of 3,442 annex VII documents between 28 October to 2 February 2026 relating to the movement of waste tyres from England. 241 of these were considered late as they were received less than the required 3 days before the waste movement. The Environment Agency is now undertaking follow up activities and considering the use of stop notices for non-compliant companies.

Food and Rural Affairs, further to the Government’s announcement in July 2025 of the decision to remove the T8 waste tyre exemption, if she will clarify the process involved in achieving that, confirm the timeline to end the T8 waste tyre exemption and confirm when the three month transition period is to start.

Removal of the T8 waste exemption for mechanically treating end-of-life tyres is part of a package of reforms to the waste exemption regime. These reforms encompass the removal of two other exemptions, substantial amendments to seven exemptions and the introduction of a number of other controls. Regulations will be made under section 2 of Pollution Prevention and Control Act 1999 and subject to the affirmative resolution procedure. The work preparing these regulations is underway and will be laid at a date subject to Parliamentary time.

Food and Rural Affairs, how many of the consignments of end-of-life tyres submitted to the Environment Agency's enhanced verification procedure for Annex VII documents between 1st October 2025 and 15th December 2025, have subsequently been subject to a Change Of Destination request made by brokers to carriers and how these requests are recorded by the Environment Agency.

The Environment Agency (EA) received two “change of destination” requests for shipments within the enhanced verification process. One request was submitted while the shipment was already at sea, and the other before it left the UK. Both were sent by email and recorded by the operational team. Whilst there is no legal requirement for exporters to inform the EA about a change of destination under the Waste Shipment Regulations, the EA monitors such changes to ensure waste is not diverted to an unsuitable destination.

Food and Rural Affairs, what enforcement action the Environment Agency plans to take against brokers who fail to submit geo-tagged photographic evidence demonstrating that consignments arrived at their intended destination.

The Environment Agency (EA) takes appropriate action to bring businesses within the waste sector back into compliance and to prevent and disrupt criminal activity. This includes providing advice and guidance for businesses trying to do the right thing, issuing enforcement notices where necessary, and, when required, pursuing prosecution as a last resort. If exporters fail to provide geotagged photographs showing that consignments have reached their destination, the EA will carry out further checks, including reviewing any alternative evidence that the waste was managed appropriately. Where the destination cannot be verified, the EA may prohibit future shipments from a specific operator or to a particular destination. It will also consider taking enforcement action for failing to comply with the notice.

Food and Rural Affairs, how many of the consignments of end-of-life tyres submitted to the Environment Agency's enhanced verification procedure for Annex VII documents between 1st October 2025 and 15th December 2025, have arrived at their final destination overseas.

The Environment Agency (EA) has issued 44 Information Notices, and in return received 1,891 Annex VII documents relating to outward shipments from the UK since 28 October 2025 when the new procedures were introduced. The EA’s enhanced verification procedure requires completed annex VII documents to be submitted 8 weeks after shipment to confirm it has arrived at its destination. The deadline for the first completed document was 28 December. The EA has since received 112 Annex VII documents from the receiving sites- this number will increase as more shipments reach the 8-week deadline. The EA continues to request completed Annex VIIs and is actively following up the outstanding returns.

Food and Rural Affairs, how many of the consignments of end-of-life tyres submitted to the Environment Agency's enhanced verification procedure for Annex VII documents between 1st October 2025 and 15th December 2025 and have arrived at their final destination have returned geo-tagged photos as proof of arrival.

The Environment Agency has received 79 completed annex VII documents since 28 December 2025 with attached geotagged photographs. Any photos submitted without the required geotagging are considered non-compliant and further action is taken.

Whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism for work capability assessors.

Since 09 September 2024, the educational material for all Health Assessment Advisory Service (HAAS) Health Professionals (HPs) has been provided by DWP. In reviewing the material ahead of that date, we considered practice in the NHS, and have now implemented the Oliver McGowan training as part of the mandatory training requirements for every HP. Following the completion of core training to undertake the role, HPs will engage in an annual training programme, and HAAS has been provided with materials (such as Continual Professional Development modules) to support the development of HPs where learning needs are identified. This approach ensures that both service wide and individual training needs are met and will be of benefit to those with neurodiversity.

Pursuant to the Answer of 7 July 2025 to Question 63305 on Sodium Valproate and Surgical Mesh Implants, on what dates they held the meetings with the Patient Safety Commissioner to discuss the recommendations of the Hughes report.

Since the publication of the Hughes Report on 7 February 2024, ministers and Departmental officials have met with the Patient Safety Commissioner on several occasions to discuss the recommendations of the Hughes report.

Pursuant to the Answer of 23 July 2024 to Question 327 on Sodium Valproate and Surgical Mesh Implants, how many meetings have been held with the Patient Safety Commissioner on the recommendations of the Hughes report.

Departmental officials and ministers have met with the Patient Safety Commissioner on several occasions, and we are happy to continue to engage with the Patient Safety Commissioner on this matter.The Government is carefully considering the work by the Patient Safety Commissioner and her report, which set out options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh. This is a complex issue involving input from different Government departments. The Government will provide a further update to the Patient Safety Commissioner’s report in due course.

Which hospitals received funding for machines capable of increasing treatment with stereotactic ablative radiotherapy.

The Department does not hold this information. However, a proportion of the machines will be capable of stereotactic ablative radiotherapy.

Whether the £70 million funding for new radiotherapy machines is in addition to the prevailing budgets for radiotherapy machines.

The £70 million investment into 28 radiotherapy machines that was announced in the 2024 Autumn Budget is part of the overall financial settlement for the 2025/26 financial year.

Innovation and Technology, which chemicals will be used in the Advanced Research and Invention Agency's geoengineering program.

ARIA is an independent research body and they are conducting cautious, controlled research aimed at improving understanding of its Climate Cooling Programme’s risks and impacts. This will produce important information for decisions on climate cooling approaches around the world.The government supports ARIA’s mission to fund transformational research programmes with long-term benefits. A select number of controlled, small-scale projects will explore spraying seawater as a potential way to enhance cloud reflectivity. Another project involves a study on how milligram quantities of mineral dusts age in the stratosphere. The project has specified that none of these materials will be released into the atmosphere in this experiment, and all the materials will be returned to the ground for recovery and analysis by scientists.Details of all of ARIA’s funded projects within its ‘Climate Cooling Programme’ can be found on their website

Whether the £70 million funding for radiotherapy machines announced in October 2024 is an additional budgetary amount for radiotherapy in the 2025-26 financial year.

The £70 million investment into 28 radiotherapy machines, which was announced in the 2024 Autumn Budget, is part of the overall financial settlement for the 2025/26 financial year.

How many (a) online and (b) in person meetings NHS England had with (i) Varian, (ii) Elekta and (iii) Accuray before setting the criteria for the allocation of funding for new radiotherapy machines.

We do not currently hold this information, but we are seeking advice from NHS England on whether any engagement took place between NHS England and the medical companies listed.The Government does not routinely publish correspondence between NHS England and medical companies. We have various communication channels to keep the public and stakeholders updated on our work to improve cancer care.

Media and Sport, how much funding was received by listed places of worship in the (a) Wells and Mendip constituency and (b) the Wells constituency prior to boundary changes in each year since 2001.

We are unable to provide data going back to 2001, as the Department only has reliable data from August 2022. Data ranging from 2014 to 2022 was collated by the previous grant administrator and is less reliable, though work has been undertaken by DCMS to improve its quality. Data prior to 2014 is no longer available.Systems have been updated to reflect the new constituency boundaries and we are now unable to provide annual data for the Wells Constituency.Since August of 2022, a total of £391,543.99 worth of funding has been received by listed places of worship in the Wells and Mendip constituency.From August of 2022 to the end of December 2022 £28,277.74 was received.From January 2023 to December 2023 £79,368.98 was received.From January 2024 to December 2024 £36,815.43 was received.From January 2025 to the end of April 2025, £102,619.69 has been received.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of restricting the radiotherapy machine fund to replacing only end of life machines on his Department's ability to make new radiotherapy capacity available in 2025-26 financial year.

The £70 million fund will replace older radiotherapy machines with new, more efficient radiotherapy machines, which will in turn increase treatment capacity and allow more patients to be treated.All future spending commitments beyond 2025/26, including the replacement of radiotherapy equipment, will be determined through the next phase of the Spending Review process, which will conclude in June.

Whether an application for authorisation of Sipavibart has been submitted to the the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is actively engaging with Astra Zeneca for any applications in flight. We recognise the importance of the rapid assessment of the medicines mentioned and we are ensuring the decisions made appropriately assess quality, safety, and efficacy.