Written questions by Brandreth.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assistance the UK will provide as part of the separate agreement to be made with Mauritius on the new marine protected area, under Article 5 of the UK-Mauritius agreement on the sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago.

As the Treaty states, the support that the UK will provide Mauritius in establishing and managing the Chagos Archipelago Marine Protected Area will be agreed between the Parties by a separate written instrument, as part of implementation of the Agreement.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, when he plans to conclude a separate agreement with the Government of Mauritius on the support and assistance provided by the UK in the establishment and management of a new marine protected area, under Article 5 of the UK-Mauritius agreement on the sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago.

As the Treaty states, the support that the UK will provide Mauritius in establishing and managing the Chagos Archipelago Marine Protected Area will be agreed between the Parties by a separate written instrument, as part of implementation of the Agreement.

Food and Rural Affairs, what options were considered by his Department for the use of water company fines before the decision to direct them towards water projects was taken.

Following the Spending Review, the Government has confirmed water company fines will be allocated to local environmental projects and programmes to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas. Over £100 million in fines has been levied against water companies since October 2023, which will be reinvested into local environment projects and programmes to address pollution and improve water quality. More information on this announcement can be found on GOV.UK. A further announcement on the details on the projects and programmes that this funding will go towards will be set out in due course. Water company fines that accumulated between April 2022 and October 2023 will be invested through the Water Restoration Fund. Up to £11 million of funding was made available on a competitive basis to support a range of water restoration projects to improve the water environment. Successful applicants have been notified, and an official announcement will follow in due course.

Food and Rural Affairs, which rivers have been identified by his Department as priority sites for improvement using funds raised through fines on water companies.

Following the Spending Review, the Government has confirmed water company fines will be allocated to local environmental projects and programmes to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas. Over £100 million in fines has been levied against water companies since October 2023, which will be reinvested into local environment projects and programmes to address pollution and improve water quality. More information on this announcement can be found on GOV.UK. A further announcement on the details on the projects and programmes that this funding will go towards will be set out in due course. Water company fines that accumulated between April 2022 and October 2023 will be invested through the Water Restoration Fund. Up to £11 million of funding was made available on a competitive basis to support a range of water restoration projects to improve the water environment. Successful applicants have been notified, and an official announcement will follow in due course.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether funds raised through fines on water companies will be allocated to support (a) water quality and (b) infrastructure improvements in the same areas where breaches occurred.

Following the Spending Review, the Government has confirmed water company fines will be allocated to local environmental projects and programmes to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas. Over £100 million in fines has been levied against water companies since October 2023, which will be reinvested into local environment projects and programmes to address pollution and improve water quality. More information on this announcement can be found on GOV.UK. A further announcement on the details on the projects and programmes that this funding will go towards will be set out in due course. Water company fines that accumulated between April 2022 and October 2023 will be invested through the Water Restoration Fund. Up to £11 million of funding was made available on a competitive basis to support a range of water restoration projects to improve the water environment. Successful applicants have been notified, and an official announcement will follow in due course.

Food and Rural Affairs, what options his Department considered for the use of fines collected from water companies.

Following the Spending Review, the Government has confirmed water company fines will be allocated to local environmental projects and programmes to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas. Over £100 million in fines has been levied against water companies since October 2023, which will be reinvested into local environment projects and programmes to address pollution and improve water quality. More information on this announcement can be found on GOV.UK. A further announcement on the details on the projects and programmes that this funding will go towards will be set out in due course. Water company fines that accumulated between April 2022 and October 2023 will be invested through the Water Restoration Fund. Up to £11 million of funding was made available on a competitive basis to support a range of water restoration projects to improve the water environment. Successful applicants have been notified, and an official announcement will follow in due course.

Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the revenue that will be raised from fines imposed on water companies for environmental breaches in the next 12 months.

Environmental enforcement, including fines, is provided by independent regulators Ofwat and the Environment Agency (EA). Enforcement activity and subsequent fines are affected by a wide variety of factors and the Government does not have a predicted figure for the next 12 months. EA fines are imposed by the courts which apply the Sentencing Council’s Environmental Offences Definite Guideline on a case-by-case basis. On 19 June 2025, the Government announced that over £100 million in fines and penalties levied against water companies since October 2023 will be reinvested into projects to clean up our waters which could include local programmes to address pollution and improve water quality.

Food and Rural Affairs, how much and what proportion of funding through the Water Restoration Fund will be used to support water (a) quality and (b) infrastructure projects.

Following the Spending Review, the Government has confirmed water company fines will be allocated to local environmental projects and programmes to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas. Over £100 million in fines has been levied against water companies since October 2023, which will be reinvested into local environment projects and programmes to address pollution and improve water quality. More information on this announcement can be found on GOV.UK. A further announcement on the details on the projects and programmes that this funding will go towards will be set out in due course. Water company fines that accumulated between April 2022 and October 2023 will be invested through the Water Restoration Fund. Up to £11 million of funding was made available on a competitive basis to support a range of water restoration projects to improve the water environment. Successful applicants have been notified, and an official announcement will follow in due course.

Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the press release entitled Government to invest over £100m in water company fines to local environmental projects, published on 19 June 2025, when he decided to use fines for water restoration projects.

Following the Spending Review, the Government has confirmed water company fines will be allocated to local environmental projects and programmes to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas. Over £100 million in fines has been levied against water companies since October 2023, which will be reinvested into local environment projects and programmes to address pollution and improve water quality. More information on this announcement can be found on GOV.UK. A further announcement on the details on the projects and programmes that this funding will go towards will be set out in due course. Water company fines that accumulated between April 2022 and October 2023 will be invested through the Water Restoration Fund. Up to £11 million of funding was made available on a competitive basis to support a range of water restoration projects to improve the water environment. Successful applicants have been notified, and an official announcement will follow in due course.

Food and Rural Affairs, how long discussions have been taking place within government on the allocation of water company fines towards water restoration and infrastructure projects.

Following the Spending Review, the Government has confirmed water company fines will be allocated to local environmental projects and programmes to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas. Over £100 million in fines has been levied against water companies since October 2023, which will be reinvested into local environment projects and programmes to address pollution and improve water quality. More information on this announcement can be found on GOV.UK. A further announcement on the details on the projects and programmes that this funding will go towards will be set out in due course. Water company fines that accumulated between April 2022 and October 2023 will be invested through the Water Restoration Fund. Up to £11 million of funding was made available on a competitive basis to support a range of water restoration projects to improve the water environment. Successful applicants have been notified, and an official announcement will follow in due course.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether any fines levied on water companies are being used to support water quality improvements at Lake Windermere.

Following the Spending Review, the Government has confirmed water company fines will be allocated to local environmental projects and programmes to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas. Over £100 million in fines has been levied against water companies since October 2023, which will be reinvested into local environment projects and programmes to address pollution and improve water quality. More information on this announcement can be found on GOV.UK. A further announcement on the details on the projects and programmes that this funding will go towards will be set out in due course. Water company fines that accumulated between April 2022 and October 2023 will be invested through the Water Restoration Fund. Up to £11 million of funding was made available on a competitive basis to support a range of water restoration projects to improve the water environment. Successful applicants have been notified, and an official announcement will follow in due course.

Food and Rural Affairs, how many farm visits (a) he has and (b) his Ministers have undertaken since 4 July 2024.

Defra ministers regularly visit farms in a range of counties and meet with farmers and the wider industry nearly every week.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the Welsh Government’s decision to ban the movement of livestock from England into Wales; and what discussions he has had with his counterpart in Wales on the (a) scientific basis and (b) implications of that policy for farmers in England.

I refer the honourable member to the answers given on X June 2025 to PQs 61013 and 61014 regarding the potential impact of bluetongue regulations in North Shropshire. Disease control is a devolved matter, and it is for the devolved administrations to assess their disease risks and impacts in relation to their national herds, alongside the impacts of controls, and respond accordingly.

Food and Rural Affairs, how many agricultural shows (a) he and (b) his ministerial team have attended since 4 July 2024.

Ministers are attending a range of agriculture shows across the UK. Most recently, Ministers have attended the Royal Cornwall Show and the Royal Highland Show.

What steps she is taking to ensure that the updated school food standards (a) reflect current nutritional science and (b) address trends in (i) childhood obesity and (ii) food related ill health.

I refer the hon. Member for Chester South and Eddisbury to the answer of 24 June 2025 to Question 58507.

Whether she has considered taking entry-level doctor jobs off the shortage occupation skills list.

The Government published the White Paper ‘Restoring Control over the immigration System’ on 12 May 2025. The White Paper set out its intention to introduce a Temporary Shortage List to replace the Immigration Salary List (previously known as the Shortage Occupation List).The list will initially be comprised of occupations where the MAC have previously identified as in shortage and those which are key to the Industrial Strategy. The Government will set out in due course the composition of that list.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to ensure that people living in rural (a) communities and (b) villages will be able to contribute to planning decisions, in the context of the national scheme of delegation.

Following the introduction of a national scheme of delegation, people living in rural communities and villages will continue to be able to make representations on individual planning applications, irrespective of who the decision maker is.On 28 May 2025, the government published a technical consultation on reform of planning committees. The consultation is open until 23 July 2025 and can be found on gov.uk here.We welcome responses from people living in rural communities and villages, and their elected representatives.

Communities and Local Government, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the national scheme of delegation on people living in rural (a) communities and (b) villages.

Following the introduction of a national scheme of delegation, people living in rural communities and villages will continue to be able to make representations on individual planning applications, irrespective of who the decision maker is.On 28 May 2025, the government published a technical consultation on reform of planning committees. The consultation is open until 23 July 2025 and can be found on gov.uk here.We welcome responses from people living in rural communities and villages, and their elected representatives.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of (a) the arrangements for plan making at (i) borough and (ii) neighbourhood level and (b) the reduction in five year land supply to below a qualifying threshold of 80% on the target for (A) Cheshire West and Chester and (B) other boroughs that will not have a transitional period.

The government’s Plan for Change includes an ambitious milestone of delivering 1.5 million safe and decent homes in this Parliament.Delivering on that milestone requires local planning authorities to plan for sufficient homes, as well as commercial development and wider infrastructure, through their local development plans.Local plans clearly spell out to developers and communities where development will and will not take place, bringing certainty to all parties. They are also the mechanism through which local communities can have their say in how homes are built.The government inherited a planning system in which only 31% of local planning authorities have adopted plans in the last five years. That is not sustainable, and I am clear that it is unacceptable for local planning authorities to not make a local plan.We are determined to drive local plans to adoption as quickly as possible, to progress towards our ambition of achieving universal plan coverage and ensure plans contribute positively to our ambition of delivering 1.5 million homes.To that end, the transitional arrangements contained within the revised National Planning Policy Framework published on 12 December 2024 mad clear that plans which are submitted for examination on or before 12 March 2025 would continue to be examined under the relevant previous version of the NPPF.However, where the draft housing requirement in the plan to be adopted meets less than 80% of local housing need, the authority will be expected to begin working on a new plan, as soon as the new plan-making system is brought into force this summer/autumn, to address the shortfall in housing need.For plans at an earlier stage of plan making, the policies of the revised NPPF apply, including revised Local Housing Need figures.The government has provided in excess of £29 million to local planning authorities this year to support them to get plans in place as soon as possible.We want to work in partnership with local planning authorities to deliver for their communities, but where they fail to do so the Deputy Prime Minister will make use of the intervention powers available to her to get local plans in place.

What assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the recommendations of the Centre for Social Justice's report entitled Change the Prescription, published in January 2025.

We recognise that for some people, treatment through medication may not be the best option, which is why we are continuing to expand access to alternative forms of treatment through NHS Talking Therapies and Individual Placement and Support schemes. This demonstrates our commitment to addressing the root causes of mental health issues and to providing support for people to contribute to the economy by remaining in or returning to work.As part of our mission to build a National Health Service that is fit for the future and that is there when people need it, we are recruiting 8,500 mental health workers across child and adult mental health services to help ease pressure on busy services.We continue to work with NHS England to consider options to deliver this commitment, alongside publishing a refreshed workforce plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade. There are a wide range of factors that will affect this future growth of the NHS mental health workforce, and we will provide an update in due course.