Written questions by Morello.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of shifting from centralised stormwater solutions to decentralised approaches such as rainwater harvesting on carbon savings.

In June this year, the Government introduced new national standards, making clear that sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) should be designed to cope with changing climatic conditions as well as delivering wider water infrastructure benefits in the form of flood prevention and storm overflow reduction, offering reuse opportunities, reducing run off, and helping to improve water quality, amenity, and biodiversity. The standards should be used by local authorities when assessing applications for development which could affect drainage on or around the site, see paragraphs 181 and 182 of the National Planning Policy Framework. We will continue to work with water companies and developers to support them to deliver water efficiency through both rainwater harvesting and water recycling and learn from their experiences.

Whether his Department has produced an impact assessment into the potential impact of (a) removing and (b) reducing levels of safeguard functions provided by integrated care boards.

Ministers and the Department are working with the new transformation team at the top of NHS England, led by Sir Jim Mackey, to ensure that integrated care boards (ICBs) continue to fulfil their functions effectively within the running costs cap, and we expect ICBs to still deliver on their duties. NHS England has stressed that any cuts should be made without compromising statutory responsibilities, and protecting frontline staff from cuts remains a priority for the Government.No changes are taking place to statutory safeguarding responsibilities. The Model ICB Blueprint starts to map out the purpose and core functions of ICBs going forward, and the functions that may transfer over time.NHS England is actively engaging with safeguarding professionals across the system, including those in local government, ICBs, and provider organisations, to ensure that safeguarding responsibilities are not compromised. This engagement is being supported by the NHS Safeguarding Accountability and Assurance Framework 2024 and the National Safeguarding Steering Group’s Integrated Care Board Safeguarding Protocols.For the areas which will be reviewed for transfer, there is recognition that further work and engagement is required. Responsibility for some of these functions may ultimately need comprehensive resolution through legislative change.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she plans to take to strengthen Section 157 of the Housing Act 1985 to prevent its circumvention through legal or administrative loopholes.

In November 2024, the government consulted on further reforms to the Right to Buy.A formal response to that consultation was published on 2 July 2025 and can be found on gov.uk here.As part of that response, the government noted arguments put forward by local authorities and their representative groups to exempt properties in rural areas or areas with populations of 3,000 or less.We will explore whether changes should be made to Section 157 of the Housing Act 1985 to better protect social and affordable housing in rural communities.

Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of a national rainwater management strategy.

We recognise that recycling rainwater plays a key role in balancing water supply and demand. Implementing rainwater management systems is a key part of existing Government strategy to review Building Regulations and water regulation, to meet the statutory Water Demand Target to reduce water usage by 20% by 2038.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to encourage the integration of rainwater harvesting systems in new housing developments.

In June this year, the Government introduced new national standards, making clear that sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) should be designed to cope with changing climatic conditions as well as delivering wider water infrastructure benefits in the form of flood prevention and storm overflow reduction, offering reuse opportunities, reducing run off, and helping to improve water quality, amenity, and biodiversity. The standards should be used by local authorities when assessing applications for development which could affect drainage on or around the site, see paragraphs 181 and 182 of the National Planning Policy Framework. This Government is committed to enabling homes to be water efficient as part of the statutory Water Demand Target. The target is underpinned by a commitment to lower water usage in homes, to achieve a usage of at least 122 litres per person per day by 2038, on a trajectory to 110 litres per person per day by 2050. Defra is working with MHCLG (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government) to explore whether Building Regulations could be further amended to tighten water efficiency standards and enable consumers to use less water and save on their water and energy bills.

What discussions she has had with the Financial Conduct Authority on the adequacy of its money laundering risk management policies.

The government meets regularly with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to discuss a range of topics. The FCA is required under the Money Laundering Regulations (MLRs) to assess the risks of money laundering for the businesses it supervises for compliance with the MLRs; to maintain risk profiles for these businesses; and to take a risk-based approach to supervision. The Treasury collects a range of information from the FCA to evaluate its approach to managing money laundering risk and publishes it as part of the annual report on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing supervision. The latest annual report is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/anti-money-laundering-and-countering-the-financing-of-terrorism-supervision-report-2023-24

What steps her Department is taking to ensure ongoing compliance with statutory safeguarding duties if designated safeguarding professionals are removed from Integrated Care Boards.

Ministers and the Department are working with the new transformation team at the top of NHS England, led by Sir Jim Mackey, to ensure that integrated care boards (ICBs) continue to fulfil their functions effectively within the running costs cap, and we expect ICBs to still deliver on their duties. NHS England has stressed that any cuts should be made without compromising statutory responsibilities, and protecting frontline staff from cuts remains a priority for the Government.No changes are taking place to statutory safeguarding responsibilities. The Model ICB Blueprint starts to map out the purpose and core functions of ICBs going forward, and the functions that may transfer over time.NHS England is actively engaging with safeguarding professionals across the system, including those in local government, ICBs, and provider organisations, to ensure that safeguarding responsibilities are not compromised. This engagement is being supported by the NHS Safeguarding Accountability and Assurance Framework 2024 and the National Safeguarding Steering Group’s Integrated Care Board Safeguarding Protocols.For the areas which will be reviewed for transfer, there is recognition that further work and engagement is required. Responsibility for some of these functions may ultimately need comprehensive resolution through legislative change.

What discussions he has had with the (a) nursing and (b) safeguarding workforce on system-wide NHS reforms.

Ministers and Department officials regularly meet with staff side representatives to discuss the implications of policy changes, including system-wide reforms, for the workforce. The national Social Partnership Forum (SPF) is the primary forum for collective discussions with trade unions and employers on such matters, and meetings are chaired by a health minister. All recent SPF meetings have featured discussions on the system-wide National Health Service reforms.

Innovation and Technology, what progress he has made on the review into legal frameworks governing subsea telecommunications cables.

I refer the Honourable Member for West Dorset to the answer given on 17 July 2025 to Question 66484. The review into the UK’s legal frameworks governing subsea telecommunications cables is still ongoing. If the Government decides that changes to legislation are necessary, then Parliament will be informed in the usual manner.

Whether she is taking steps to review the oversight mechanisms of the Financial Conduct Authority.

The government and Parliament exercise oversight over the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in a number of ways, including through the government’s remit letters, which set out elements of the government’s economic policy to which the FCA must have regard, and parliamentary scrutiny of the FCA’s Annual Reports. Senior representatives of the FCA also regularly give evidence to parliamentary committees, where the FCA’s performance and operational effectiveness is scrutinised. The government is currently consulting on a number of proposed targeted changes to the regulatory environment for financial services, designed to support the government’s overall ambition to ensure that regulation supports growth, is targeted and proportionate, is transparent and predictable, and adapts to keep pace with innovation.The consultation includes a proposal to require the FCA and the Prudential Regulation Authority to set out long-term strategies for how they will advance their objectives, including their secondary objectives to facilitate growth and international competitiveness. This will ensure that stakeholders, including regulated firms in the sector, are able to fully understand the UK’s strategy towards the sector. This will also ensure that government and parliament are able to effectively hold the regulators to account for how they translate their objectives into different priorities.As part of the consultation, the government also confirmed it will review the regulators’ overall reporting structure to focus it on the regulators’ core functions and objectives, minimising the number of documents stakeholders and Parliament must engage with for effective scrutiny.

Food and Rural Affairs, what comparative assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of its policies on (a) decentralised rainwater management and (b) building (i) reservoirs and (ii) sewage plants on levels of flood risk.

In June this year, the Government introduced new national standards, making clear that sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) should be designed to cope with changing climatic conditions as well as delivering wider water infrastructure benefits in the form of flood prevention and storm overflow reduction, offering reuse opportunities, reducing run off, and helping to improve water quality, amenity, and biodiversity. The standards should be used by local authorities when assessing applications for development which could affect drainage on or around the site, see paragraphs 181 and 182 of the National Planning Policy Framework. Across much of the UK, our drainage and sewerage network is set up as a combined system (rainwater and wastewater), typical of Victorian design. Climate change, urban creep and a growing population have exacerbated the pressures on the system. The National assessment of flood and coastal erosion risk in England published in December 2024 sets out the flood risk to treatment works and water pumping stations. The Environment Agency’s National Framework for Water Resources 2025 emphasises the importance of water catchments operating naturally, to be more resilient to challenges such as flooding, drought, and water scarcity. The Framework explains how we expect an integrated approach to be taken forward.

If she will make it her policy to increase the flexibility of funded childcare arrangements to help increase support for parents (a) who are unable to take up work due to a lack of available nursery places and (b) with restrictive nursery session times.

On 7 July, the department published its Best Start in Life Strategy, which sets out how we will make real change happen for families across the country.We are delivering more support to working families than ever before with the rollout of 30 hours government-funded childcare from September 2025. This is expected to save eligible families using their full entitlement an average of £7,500 a year.Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area.There is no requirement that childcare providers must deliver funded hours at particular times of the day or on particular days of the week. Providers are free to choose when to deliver funded hours, as long as they comply with the terms of their arrangements with the local authority.Local authorities should actively support partnership working between providers to ensure that funded places are high-quality, flexible and accessible to give parents choice about how and where they take-up their child’s free hours. Local authorities should also support providers to establish parental declarations setting out their hours and patterns of hours during which free places are offered.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that rural areas are not disproportionately impacted by the rollout of the expanded childcare offer, in the context of levels of (a) job availability and (b) childcare capacity in rural areas.

The department is working closely with all local authorities on the rollout of the expanded childcare offer. The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing, including impacts to rural areas. Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, we support the local authority, where needed, through our childcare sufficiency support contract.To support delivery of the expansion, our national recruitment campaign urges the public to ‘Do something BIG’ and consider working in nurseries or pre-schools, as a childminder, or in wraparound care roles. On average, the campaign website receives over 37,000 visits weekly, which directs potential applicants to the Department for Work and Pension’s ‘Find a Job’ vacancy platform to search for early years roles.To address childcare capacity, schools could apply for up to £150,000 of capital funding in autumn 2024 to create or expand a school-based nursery, creating up to 6,000 places with most available from September 2025. This is the first stage in a long-term commitment to expand school-based nurseries across England.The latest data shows there are over 5,800 more providers delivering childcare entitlements than last year, the first increase in five years, and the biggest increase since data became available in 2018. This comes alongside an 18,000 increase in the number of staff delivering the entitlements in private, voluntary and independent nurseries. This is backed by significant government investment totalling over £8 billion for early years entitlements in 2025/26.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Rural Payments Agency is taking to improve the (a) usability and (b) reliability of its online systems.

The Rural Payments Agency is supporting Defra’s Digital Data Technology Services team, the Livestock Improvement Transformation Programme, and the Farming & Countryside Programme on a suite of work to upgrade, improve and replace IT systems. The Rural Payments Service currently supports tens of thousands of customers, handling their agreements and payments for land-based schemes. We continue to look for opportunities to improve in advance of any new IT replacing it. Recent examples include upgrade of the infrastructure underpinning the Rural Payments Service to improve system performance and the introduction of an online service for customers to amend their bank details.

If he will have discussions with Ofcom on measures to hold parcel delivery companies to account for (a) delayed and (b) failed deliveries in rural areas.

Ofcom is the independent regulator for the postal sector with the responsibility and powers to regulate postal services.Ofcom engages regularly with parcel operators to understand their approach to implementation of Ofcom’s consumer protection measures. The results of its most recent survey research on consumer satisfaction with parcel delivery services is published in Ofcom’s 2023-24 Post Monitoring Report: www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets/resources/documents/postal-services/monitoring-reports/2023-2024/post-monitoring-report-2023-24.pdfOfcom is committed to ongoing monitoring of market performance and will consider enforcement action if appropriate to do so.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will have discussions with Cabinet colleagues on ensuring that the Global Plastics Treaty supports the protection of (a) coastal ecosystems and (b) the tourism economy in (ii) West Dorset constituency and (ii) other areas.

The Government is committed to reaching agreement on an ambitious and effective treaty to end plastic pollution when negotiations resume in August 2025 and will be working closely with countries both within the High Ambition Coalition and outside it to achieve this. Plastic pollution can negatively impact coastal areas, industries, and ecosystems. The UK is calling for global legally binding rules that will tackle the full life cycle of plastics and promote a circular economy, working to prevent and reduce plastic pollution. We have called for specific measures to address plastic pollution from fishing and aquaculture gear and plastic pellets, two forms of plastic pollution that particularly affect coastal communities and cause harm to coastal ecosystems. Whilst a full assessment of the impacts can only be made once negotiations are complete, global and regional analysis by the OECD suggests an ambitious and effective global plastic pollution treaty could benefit the UK, including coastal areas such as West Dorset, by creating a level playing field for UK businesses and driving a global systems change towards a more circular economy for plastics.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make it his policy to update the IT systems of the Rural Payments Agency.

The Rural Payments Agency is supporting Defra’s Digital Data Technology Services team, the Livestock Improvement Transformation Programme, and the Farming & Countryside Programme on a suite of work to upgrade, improve and replace IT systems. The Rural Payments Service currently supports tens of thousands of customers, handling their agreements and payments for land-based schemes. We continue to look for opportunities to improve in advance of any new IT replacing it. Recent examples include upgrade of the infrastructure underpinning the Rural Payments Service to improve system performance and the introduction of an online service for customers to amend their bank details.

Food and Rural Affairs, what diplomatic steps his Department is taking to support the inclusion of strong measures in the Global Plastics Treaty to reduce plastic pollution and protect marine ecosystems.

For too long, plastic has littered our ocean and threatened our wildlife. We urgently need an ambitious and effective international agreement to end plastic pollution by 2040. The United Kingdom has been a leading voice in the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee and as a founding member of the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution (HAC), the UK is committed to achieving an ambitious treaty. Negotiations will resume in August with the aim of concluding negotiations on a new treaty. The UK is working with other countries, including allies in the HAC to achieve this.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential environmental and economic impact of a legally binding Global Plastics Treaty on the UK.

The Government is committed to reaching agreement on an ambitious and effective treaty to end plastic pollution when negotiations resume in August 2025 and will be working closely with countries both within the High Ambition Coalition and outside it to achieve this. Plastic pollution can negatively impact coastal areas, industries, and ecosystems. The UK is calling for global legally binding rules that will tackle the full life cycle of plastics and promote a circular economy, working to prevent and reduce plastic pollution. We have called for specific measures to address plastic pollution from fishing and aquaculture gear and plastic pellets, two forms of plastic pollution that particularly affect coastal communities and cause harm to coastal ecosystems. Whilst a full assessment of the impacts can only be made once negotiations are complete, global and regional analysis by the OECD suggests an ambitious and effective global plastic pollution treaty could benefit the UK, including coastal areas such as West Dorset, by creating a level playing field for UK businesses and driving a global systems change towards a more circular economy for plastics.

Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Rural Payments Agency on upgrading its digital services to reduce errors and delays for users.

The Rural Payments Agency is supporting Defra’s Digital Data Technology Services team, the Livestock Improvement Transformation Programme, and the Farming & Countryside Programme on a suite of work to upgrade, improve and replace IT systems. The Rural Payments Service currently supports tens of thousands of customers, handling their agreements and payments for land-based schemes. We continue to look for opportunities to improve in advance of any new IT replacing it. Recent examples include upgrade of the infrastructure underpinning the Rural Payments Service to improve system performance and the introduction of an online service for customers to amend their bank details.