Written questions by Anderson.

Food and Rural Affairs, what progress he has made in improving water quality in South Shropshire constituency.

Cleaning up our rivers is a top priority. The Environment Agency’s (EA) Water Industry Regulation Transformation Programme is delivering more inspections and pushing water companies to perform better, and water companies are investing over £11 billion between 2025-2030, to improve nearly 3,000 storm overflows across England and Wales. In the West Midlands in 2024/25, water companies undertook over 160 actions aimed at improving sewage treatment works (STWs) and storm overflow discharges to improve water quality, and over 100 actions aimed to prevent deterioration of water quality. In this constituency, 14 improvement schemes were delivered at STWs between 2020–2025, with further improvements at 11 STWs and 57 at storm overflows. During 2024/25 over 800 compliance inspections were conducted at Severn Trent Water sites, aiming to rise to 1700+ in 2025/26. The EA will attend more minor pollution incidents and continue to attend all serious pollution incidents, not hesitating to take appropriate enforcement action.

What steps his Department is taking to help support women affected by increases in State Pension age in South Shropshire constituency.

The Government believes the best way to support women who will be affected by the rise in State Pension Age is to help them to retrain, return to or progress in work. DWP currently offers employment support for eligible women of all ages, through the network of Jobcentres across the UK, and through contracted employment programmes. A dedicated offer for older customers seeks to provide tailored support for those affected by low confidence, health and disability or caring pressures, and out of date skills or qualifications. Through initiatives like Midlife MOT reviews, delivered in Jobcentres across the UK, and online, we support older women to assess their health, finances and skills to support effective later life planning. As part of the Plan to Make Work Pay, the Government is also committed to supporting women experiencing menopause to stay in work. In South Shropshire, Employer and Partnership Teams in Jobcentres work with a range of employers and partners to enhance the skills and employment support available locally for customers including women. The Government is reforming employment support to ensure it helps everyone who needs it, including women affected by the increase in State Pension age. By bringing together Jobcentre Plus with the National Careers Service in England, there is an opportunity to create a greater awareness and focus on skills and careers as well as better join-up between employability and careers provision.

When he expects the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency early access service for innovative technologies to open.

In July of this year the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency published a statement of policy intent for the development and implementation of an Early Access Service for innovative medical devices, which is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/statement-of-policy-intent-early-access-to-innovative-medical-devices/statement-of-policy-intent-early-access-to-innovative-medical-devices#next-stepsThe service aims to speed up safe access to innovative medical devices for patients, supporting the Government’s Life Sciences Sector Plan. The statement set out our intention to work with stakeholders across the life science ecosystem to further develop the policy and to build the internal capability required to deliver the service throughout 2025. Further information on our plans will be provided in early 2026.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish the evidence used by his Department to inform its policy on burning on peatlands.

Earlier this year Natural England published a thorough evidence review looking at the effects of managed burning on upland peatlands. This remains the most comprehensive review available and can be found via the following link - An evidence review update on the effects of managed burning on upland peatland biodiversity, carbon and water - NEER155.

Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to improve services for young people in South Shropshire constituency.

Local authorities play a key part in delivering youth services, reflected in their statutory duty to provide sufficient leisure-time activities and facilities in line with local needs. In 25/26 we are investing £8m in the Local Youth Transformation (LYT) Pilot to support local authorities to rebuild a high-quality offer for young people and transition back to local youth services leadership. Shropshire County Council is one of the 12 local authorities participating in the pilot, and they have been awarded £695,131. This Government fully recognises the importance of youth services to help young people live safe and healthy lives, and we are committed to giving all young people the chance to reach their full potential. We are co-producing a new National Youth Strategy to set out a new long-term vision for young people and an action plan for delivering this. The National Youth Strategy will be published later this year.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help support small abattoirs.

The Government recognises the vital role small abattoirs play in supporting local livestock producers and maintaining a resilient and competitive food supply chain. Defra works closely with industry stakeholders including through the Small Abattoirs Working Group and the Small Abattoirs Task and Finish Group. These groups bring together government and industry representatives on a regular basis and provide a forum for identifying the challenges and opportunities that the sector faces, and for collaborating on practical solutions to support the long-term sustainability of small and medium sized abattoirs.

Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to help people to prepare for the digital switchover in rural areas.

The Government has acted to ensure any risks arising from the industry-led migration of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) are mitigated for all customers. Major communication providers and network operators signed voluntary charters in December 2023 and March 2024. To enhance protections for vulnerable customers, the Government secured new commitments from the telecoms industry in November 2024, including further safeguards set out in the non-voluntary migrations checklist.One of the safeguards is to ensure that customers that have been identified as vulnerable, are provided with a battery back-up solution that provides over one hour of access to emergency services in the event of a power outage. This includes those who are landline dependent (e.g. because they live in a mobile not-spot). Many providers are going beyond these safeguards, including batteries that last 4-7 hours.

Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of changes to the planned timetable for gigabit rollout on rural areas.

According to the independent website, Thinkbroadband.com, 89% of premises in the UK already have access to a gigabit-capable broadband connection. The government is still committed to ensuring 99% of premises receive gigabit coverage by 2032.The funding, committed over the Spending Review covering the period 2026/27 to 2029/30, will support the delivery of all existing Project Gigabit contracts, voucher projects and areas currently in procurement. It reconfirms the government’s confidence in suppliers' ability to deliver the rollout.

What steps he is taking to help improve farm safety.

I refer the Honourable Member to the previous answer 68659

Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to help ensure protections are in place for the provision of (a) sports, (b) physical activity and (b) green spaces in the consideration of planning applications.

The National Planning Policy Framework makes clear that access to high-quality open spaces and opportunities for sport and physical activity is important for the health and well-being of communities. The Framework includes strong protections for existing open space, sports and recreational buildings and land, including playing fields, setting out that they should not be built on unless they are no longer needed, equivalent or better provision is made, or the development is for alternative sports or recreational provision which offers benefits that clearly outweigh the loss of the current or former use.

Whether his Department is taking steps to help support Midlands Air Ambulance Charity.

The Department does not directly fund air ambulance services on a routine basis. Air ambulances in England operate as independent charities and are supported by the National Health Service through the provision and training of key clinical staff.

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

The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including National Health Service 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.We have asked ICBs to commission extra urgent dental appointments. ICBs have been making extra appointments available from 1 April 2025.ICBs are recruiting dentists through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.We are committed to reforming the dental contract, with a focus on matching resources to need, improving access, promoting prevention and rewarding dentists fairly, while enabling the whole dental team to work to the top of their capability. The Government is committed to achieving fundamental contract reform before the end of this Parliament.We recently held a full public consultation on a package of changes to improve access to, and the quality of, NHS dentistry, which will deliver better care for the diverse oral health needs of people across England. The consultation closed on 19 August. The Government is considering the outcomes of the consultation and will publish a response in due course.

What steps he is taking to help improve access to palliative care in rural areas.

We know that there are inequalities in access to palliative care and end of life care in rural areas and the Government is looking at how best to reduce these.Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. ICBs are responsible for the commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services, to meet the needs of their local populations. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.The statutory guidance outlines areas for consideration when commissioning services, which makes reference to improving equity of access and reducing inequity in outcomes and experience.NHS England has also developed a palliative and end of life care dashboard, which brings together all relevant local data in one place. The dashboard helps commissioners understand the palliative care and end of life care needs of their local population, enabling ICBs to put plans in place to address and track the improvement of health inequalities, and ensure that funding is distributed fairly, based on prevalence.The Department and NHS England are currently looking at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all-age palliative care and end of life care in line with the 10-Year Health Plan.

What steps his Department is taking to help support (a) innovation and (b) collaboration in improving public health outcomes in rural areas.

Upper and single tier local authorities have a statutory duty to take steps to improve the health of local people. Under this duty, local authorities commission a range of public health services and are responsible for determining the most effective approaches to the delivery of these services, taking account of different local needs, including the needs of rural areas. This can include testing new approaches to service delivery, implementing technology-based interventions or improving data analytics to better understand population health. In 2025/26, we provided funding of £3.884 billion to local authorities for their public health duty, through the Public Health Grant. This is an average 6.1% cash increase, or 3.4% real terms increase, compared to 2024/25.NHS England is responsible for commissioning further specified public health services, including national immunisation and screening programmes. The 10-Year Health Plan signaled innovative approaches in these public health services, including a transformed NHS app that will be linked with screening programmes allowing individuals to receive reminders and book appointments online for breast, cervical and bowel cancer screening. Working with integrated care boards, commissioning of these services should also take account of local needs, including the different urban and rural characteristics of communities.The 10-Year Health Plan also announced that, from 2026, we will set the expectation that every single or upper tier local authority participates in an external public health peer review exercise, on a five-year cycle, with the results directly informing local plans. These will support local government to improve public health services, including those in rural areas, through sharing innovations and adopting best practices.

If she will make it her policy to restore the academy conversion support grant.

The department has no plans to restore the academy conversion support grant. Voluntary conversion is a choice for schools and trusts to make.

What steps his Department is taking to help support (a) high streets and (b) town centres in South Shropshire constituency.

This Department is committed to support constituencies like South Shropshire grow their high streets and town centres. Our Plan for Small Businesses sets out how government will work across departments to tackle high street decline.This year 500 towns including Ludlow and Bridgenorth developed local plans, as part of the Safer Streets Summer, to develop bespoke local action plans with police, businesses and local councils to crackdown on crime on the high street.SMEs on the high street will also benefit from the new tools to unlock access to finance, action to address late payments and regulatory costs, improve digital adoption and create easier pathways to business support through the Business Growth Service.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that the land use framework will support sustainable food production on farms.

The Land Use Consultation launched this year was underpinned by analysis of land use change for nature restoration and other objectives. This included analysis of potential spatial distributions of change to 2050, taking account of land’s suitability for food production. Alongside the formal consultation, Defra ran and participated in several different engagement events across England to ensure that farmers’ and food producers’ views were heard. The Department led six regional workshops and regional focus groups, supported five regional workshops run by external organisations, and attended several wider meetings, conferences and discussions. When published, the Land Use Framework will set out the evidence, data and tools needed to help safeguard our most productive agricultural land.

What assessment he has made of the role of the NHS in social care delivery.

Social care delivery is part of our vision for a Neighbourhood Health Service that shifts care from hospitals to communities, with more personalised, proactive and joined-up health and care services that help people stay independent for as long as possible. The 10-Year Health Plan sets out how we will work towards a Neighbourhood Health Service, with more care delivered locally to create healthier communities, spot problems earlier, and integrate health into the social fabric of places. This join-up is underpinned by improved national data and digital infrastructure to ensure health and care staff can access real-time information to improve the safety and quality of care.

What steps his Department is taking to help support households that are off the (a) gas and (b) electricity grid to improve their energy efficiency.

We expect transitioning to clean heat will involve installing a heat pump for most off-gas-grid properties as these are cost-effective, proven technologies. The government has announced measures to support consumers with heat pump installations. The government recognises heat pumps may not be a feasible option for all properties and we are committed to ensuring that there is the right solution for every household. Other low carbon heating technologies are available and the governments offers grants of £5,000 for biomass boilers under the Boiler Upgrade Scheme. Research is underway to collect data on the costs of different approaches to decarbonising the most complex housing archetypes.

Communities and Local Government, what funding is available for community ownership projects.

The government is committed to supporting community ownership and empowering local people to take control of valued community assets.As part of the forthcoming English Devolution Bill, this government will legislate to introduce a new Community Right to Buy. This will enable communities to acquire assets such as empty shops, pubs, and community spaces when they come up for sale, helping to bring them back into community use and tackle the issue of vacant premises on high streets.In addition, the government has launched the Pride in Place programme, which will invest up to £5 billion over ten years, supporting 244 places across the United Kingdom. Community ownership projects such as youth clubs, libraries, community grocers, cultural venues, and health and wellbeing services will be eligible for support where they align with the needs and ambitions of local communities.We have also launched the Pride in Place Impact Fund, with £150 million to invest in up to 95 communities, helping to rebuild community pride in local areas. One of the objectives is to support community spaces; creating, extending, improving or refurbishing existing community facilities and enabling community organisations to take control or ownership of underused but valued local assets.