Written questions by Goldsborough.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of confirming NFU Sugar as the UK sugar beet growers’ representative in contract negotiations with British Sugar.

The Government recognises the importance of sugar beet farmers and their vital contribution to UK sugar production. Also, that sugar beet itself, used in crop rotations, is beneficial to soil and crop health and allows arable farms a season of “rest” from cereal production. We are committed to promoting fairness across the food supply chain. That includes seeing a price agreed for sugar beet that benefits both growers and processors, in the context of the global market. There is a well-established process in place to agree the sugar beet price; designed to be independent between both parties. The NFU has a statutory mandate, under Article 125 of Regulation EU 1308/2013 (Retained EU Law on the common organisation of agricultural markets) to represent the interests of growers in all commercial dealings with the processor. An Inter Professional Agreement is agreed each year between both parties and sets out the process for negotiating and agreeing price, terms and conditions for the upcoming crop year, as well as any dispute resolution process.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps to ensure that the sole processor negotiates with the growers’ collective representative in the sugar beet sector.

The Government recognises the importance of sugar beet farmers and their vital contribution to UK sugar production. Also, that sugar beet itself, used in crop rotations, is beneficial to soil and crop health and allows arable farms a season of “rest” from cereal production. We are committed to promoting fairness across the food supply chain. That includes seeing a price agreed for sugar beet that benefits both growers and processors, in the context of the global market. There is a well-established process in place to agree the sugar beet price; designed to be independent between both parties. The NFU has a statutory mandate, under Article 125 of Regulation EU 1308/2013 (Retained EU Law on the common organisation of agricultural markets) to represent the interests of growers in all commercial dealings with the processor. An Inter Professional Agreement is agreed each year between both parties and sets out the process for negotiating and agreeing price, terms and conditions for the upcoming crop year, as well as any dispute resolution process.

What steps her Department is taking to help improve highway safety on rural lanes.

We have awarded local authorities £185.8 million of funding between 2017 and 2024 through the Safer Roads Fund to improve the safety of England's most high risk 'A' roads. To date, it has funded 445.3 miles of rural roads which make up 62.4% of all funded routes.We acknowledge there is more that can be done; therefore, my Department is developing a road safety strategy, the first in over ten years, and we will set out more details in due course.

What steps her Department is taking to reduce the amount of time prisoners spend in their cells.

We recognise the importance of prisoners having access to purposeful activity, including education. We know that this significantly reduces the likelihood of re-offending – by up to nine percentage points.After the previous Government ran the prison estate at over 99% capacity for years, our prison system is on the brink of collapse. It is very difficult to run an effective regime that rehabilitates prisoners and cuts reoffending, when prisons are so full. This Government is beginning to address the capacity crisis we inherited, to ensure that our prisons create better citizens, not better criminals.HM Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS) has introduced the National Regime Model, which creates a national infrastructure for planning, reviewing, and measuring purposeful activity. Every prison must now deliver a minimum of 60 minutes each day in the open air, and 120 minutes out of cell. Prisons are also required to set out how they are improving their regime offer year-on-year.All prisons are required to provide physical education (PE). HMPPS promotes participation in PE which it defines as activities supervised and organised as part of an establishment’s agreed PE programme. Prison Service Instruction (PSI) 58/2011 Physical Education for Prisoners specifies the requirement for prisons to offer a range of sport and gym-based activity for a minimum of two and half hours a week.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure prisoners on the secure estate have access to a careers mentor.

From April 2025, new Careers, Information, Advice and Guidance (CIAG) contracts will launch which will set consistent high standards for providers. Providers will be working on a national specification, and this will be mandated in all prisons. The CIAG Service will be supported by a new digital Learning & Work Progress Service that will capture prisoner goals throughout the life of their sentence. This means that prisoners will have access to CIAG that is relevant to their needs.

If he will make an estimate of the number of former armed forces personnel living in South Norfolk constituency.

The House of Commons Library has an online data dashboard for constituencies which includes data on Veterans taken from the most recent censuses in Great Britain. This is available here:https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/constituency-data-uk-armed-forces-veterans-2021-census/England and Wales Census 2021 data showed that 3,537 people in South Norfolk constituency reported that they had previously served in the UK armed forces. This represents 4.7% of this constituency’s population aged 16 and over. This compares with 3.8% of the population in the East of England region and 3.8% in Great Britain.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure prisoners on the secure estate undertake the minimum time for physical exercise.

We recognise the importance of prisoners having access to purposeful activity, including education. We know that this significantly reduces the likelihood of re-offending – by up to nine percentage points.After the previous Government ran the prison estate at over 99% capacity for years, our prison system is on the brink of collapse. It is very difficult to run an effective regime that rehabilitates prisoners and cuts reoffending, when prisons are so full. This Government is beginning to address the capacity crisis we inherited, to ensure that our prisons create better citizens, not better criminals.HM Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS) has introduced the National Regime Model, which creates a national infrastructure for planning, reviewing, and measuring purposeful activity. Every prison must now deliver a minimum of 60 minutes each day in the open air, and 120 minutes out of cell. Prisons are also required to set out how they are improving their regime offer year-on-year.All prisons are required to provide physical education (PE). HMPPS promotes participation in PE which it defines as activities supervised and organised as part of an establishment’s agreed PE programme. Prison Service Instruction (PSI) 58/2011 Physical Education for Prisoners specifies the requirement for prisons to offer a range of sport and gym-based activity for a minimum of two and half hours a week.

What steps her Department is taking to improve access to electric vehicle charging points in rural communities.

A widespread, easy-to-use and reliable network of public chargepoints is crucial to support the electric vehicle transition. In 2024, nearly 20,000 public charging devices were added to the network, making it a record year. There was particularly strong growth in rural areas, with chargepoint numbers increasing by 45%. Government investment will continue to support public chargepoint rollout, including the £381m Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund which was purposefully designed to better reflect regional disparity. The LEVI Fund, alongside private investment, is estimated to deliver at least 100,000 chargepoints alone.

What steps her Department is taking to improve the rural road network.

The Government takes the condition of both rural and urban roads very seriously and is determined to help local authorities tackle the maintenance backlog that results from years of underinvestment by the previous Government. The Department for Transport has allocated Norfolk County Council over £56 million for the 2025/26 financial year to help it carry out its highway maintenance responsibilities, an increase of over 36%. It is up to Norfolk County Council to decide how much of this it spends on its rural roads, based on local needs and priorities, but the additional funding should allow it to deliver real improvements in both rural and urban areas.

Media and Sport, how much money released by the Dormant Assets scheme has been allocated to (a) England, (b) East Anglia and (c) Norfolk in each year since the scheme began.

As of 2023/24, a total of £826 million has been allocated from the Dormant Assets Scheme to England, with DCMS responsible for this portion of funding. This is broken down by year as follows: 2011/12: £39.9 million; 2012/13: £41.6 million; 2013/14: £70 million; 2014/15: £41.1 million; 2015/16: £30.7 million; 2016/17: £79.1 million; 2017/18: £128 million; 2018/19: £59.8 million; 2019/20: £57.6 million; 2020/21: £75.6 million; 2021/22: £44.8 million; 2022/23: £77.9 million; and 2023/24: £79.9 million.To date, this has been distributed by four independent, expert organisations set up with the explicit purpose of delivering dormant assets funding: Youth Futures Foundation, Fair4All Finance, Better Society Capital, and Access: The Foundation for Social Investment. Dormant assets funding seeks to address entrenched societal challenges through long-term, innovative programmes at a national scale, and is not allocated on a regional basis.Examples of how dormant assets funding has benefited East Anglia and Norfolk include Fair4All Finance investing £88,240 in community finance organisations in Norwich to support people in vulnerable circumstances by improving their access to fair and affordable financial products and services. Additionally, Asperger East Anglia received a £35,000 loan from Access’s Growth Fund, funded by dormant assets.

What steps her Department is taking to reduce speeding on rural lanes and highways.

Excess speed is still a major cause of death and serious injury on our roads. Anyone who breaks the speed limit should expect to face sanction.Enforcement of speeding offences in rural lanes and highways and the deployment of available resources and capabilities is an operational matter for individual Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners to determine, taking into account the specific local problems and demands with which they are faced.

What steps her Department is taking to reduce shoplifting in rural convenience stores.

In the last year of the previous government, shop theft soared to a twenty-year high, with more and more offenders using violence and abuse against shopworkers. We will not stand for this.No matter where you live, we are clear that when you report a crime, it should be properly investigated with victims having faith justice will be delivered and criminals will face meaningful consequences.We will introduce a new offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores. We will also end the effective immunity, introduced by the last government, granted to shop theft of goods of and under £200. This will remove any perception that offenders will escape punishment.We will also provide over £7 million over the next three financial years to support the police tackling retail crime.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that disabled travellers are not discriminated against when using taxi services.

Disabled people should be able to travel easily, confidently and with dignity, like anybody else and the Government understands the importance of taxi and private hire vehicle (PHV) services in making this possible. Consistent with other service providers, under the Equality Act 2010 taxi and PHV drivers, and PHV operators, are prohibited from discriminating against disabled passengers on grounds of disability and must make reasonable adjustments to enable disabled people to access their services. They also have specific duties to accept the carriage of disabled people and not to charge them more than other passengers. We encourage licensing authorities in England to use the government’s best practice guidance document which emphasises the importance of licensing authorities continuing to improve the inclusivity of the taxi and PHV services they regulate. This includes taking effective action in response to alleged discriminatory conduct by drivers and operators and ensuring that drivers and operator staff complete training in disability awareness.

What steps her Department is taking to reduce overcrowding on the secure estate.

This Government inherited a criminal justice system in crisis, with prisons running at over 99% capacity and on the brink of total collapse. If our prisons overflowed, police would have been unable to make arrests and we would have faced the total breakdown of law and order. We had to take emergency measures in order avoid disaster. Our priority now is to ensure there is enough capacity in the prison estate in the short and longer term.Our 10-year Prison Capacity strategy published on 11 December sets out plans to deliver 14,000 prison places and maintain the places in our estate to ensure we have sufficient accommodation and explore the acquisition of land should we need to build more prison places.We have also launched an Independent Sentencing Review, chaired by former Lord Chancellor, David Gauke. The Review’s aim is to ensure we are never again left in a position where we have more prisoners than places available.The Lord Chancellor also announced a series of measures in October 2024 to manage the pressures on the prison estate until longer term reforms come into effect. This includes reforming our recall practices and an extension of the maximum period offenders can spend on Home Detention Curfew from 6 – 12 months.

If she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the frequency of rail services for commuters between Norwich and Cambridge.

Greater Anglia continuously reviews passenger numbers and service levels and in collaboration with Network Rail, adjusts timetables where there is the case to do so and where it is possible. In addition, Network Rail is currently carrying out a route study on the capacity and future demand of the rail network in Norfolk, which includes the route between Norwich and Cambridge. This study is expected to provide guidance on future investment and improvements needed to increase service levels.

What steps his Department is taking to provide safety and health screenings for new arrivals to the secure estate.

Every prisoner, whether they are new into prison or have been transferred between establishments, undergoes a health screen upon arrival. This is in line with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidance and covers immediate health problems, which includes identifying mental health or substance misuse issues, and is followed by a referral onto the appropriate health team within the prison estate, if necessary.

What steps his Department is taking to ensure that all prisoners receive an initial health screening when arriving on the secure estate.

Every prisoner, whether they are new into prison or have been transferred between establishments, undergoes a health screen upon arrival. This is in line with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidance and covers immediate health problems, which includes identifying mental health or substance misuse issues, and is followed by a referral onto the appropriate health team within the prison estate, if necessary.

How many secure mental health beds were available on the secure estate in each of the last ten financial years.

The data requested is not centrally held nor published by NHS England.

What steps her Department is taking to reduce crime in rural villages.

Rural crime can have devastating consequences for countryside communities.That is why this Government is committed to reducing crime in rural areas.Under our Safer Streets Mission, rural communities will be safeguarded, with tougher measures to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, strengthened neighbourhood policing and stronger measures to prevent farm theft and fly-tipping.The Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee will deliver thousands of neighbourhood police and community support officers, across England and Wales, including in rural areas, to speed up response times and build public confidence. This Government is clear that when you report a crime, it should be properly investigated with victims having faith that justice will be delivered, and criminals will be punished – no matter where you live.We are also committed to implementing the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023 to fend off the theft and re-sale of high-value equipment, particularly for use in an agricultural setting.

If she will make an assessment of the potential economic impact of trains operating on the proposed Oxford to Cambridge rail line continuing their journey to Norwich via the Breckland line.

There are currently no plans to extend East-West Rail services beyond its core scope, but through services may be an option in the future – and doing so would not be precluded by any scope being delivered as part of East-West Rail.