Written questions by Anderson.

Innovation and Technology, what steps are being taken to increase mobile connectivity in South Shropshire constituency.

Our ambition is for all populated areas to have access to higher quality standalone 5G by 2030. Government continues to work closely with the mobile network operators (MNOs), ensuring that we have the right policy and regulatory framework in place to support investment, as well as identifying and addressing barriers to deployment where they exist and it is practical to do so.In Ofcom’s Connected Nations Annual Report, published on 19 November 2025, it is reported that 4G is available across 88% of landmass in the South Shropshire constituency from all four MNOs, while 5G (combined standalone and non-standalone) is available outside 80% of premises in the constituency from at least one MNO.Whilst the rollout of 5G infrastructure is primarily commercially driven, government’s Shared Rural Network programme continues to deliver 4G coverage improvements. The programme has upgraded and activated two government funded Home Office masts which are providing new coverage to the more rural parts of South Shropshire.

Media and Sport, what steps are being taken to support heritage assets in South Shropshire constituency.

This government takes our responsibility to the built historic environment seriously. For this year alone, my Department has committed nearly £60 million of funding for heritage, including £15m for Heritage at Risk. Funding is administered by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Arms-Length-Bodies. Since 1994, The National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded £20,766,738 to 241 projects in South Shropshire constituency, such as the 2024/25 grant of £592,109 to the Parochial Church Council of Nash and Boraston for St John the Baptist Church, Nash, to enable the repair of the tower spire and roof of St John the Baptist Church, and to celebrate the history of the church, creating a timeline for the building’s history. Over the last 10 years, Historic England has administered £1,283,643 of funding in South Shropshire. Historic England is also actively engaged in discussion with the owners and managers of assets on the Heritage at Risk Register in South Shropshire as well as other assets within the constituency.

If she will review the adequacy of assessment criteria for establishing banking hubs.

Banking is changing, with many customers benefitting from the convenience and flexibility of managing their finances remotely. However, Government understands the importance of face-to-face banking to communities and is committed to championing sufficient access for customers. In addition to traditional bank branches, the financial services industry is committed to rolling out 350 banking hubs across the UK by the end of this Parliament. Over 240 hubs have been announced so far, and more than 190 are already open. Government is working closely with industry on this commitment. The locations of banking hubs are independently determined by LINK, the industry coordinating body responsible for making access to cash assessments. LINK will carry out an assessment wherever a branch closure is announced or if they receive a community request. Any decisions on changes to LINK’s independent assessment criteria are a matter for LINK and the financial services sector.

What action her Department is taking to tackle anti-social behaviour in rural towns and villages in South Shropshire constituency.

Tackling Anti-Social Behaviour is a top priority for this Government.Under the Government's Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, we are putting neighbourhood officers back into communities and restoring public confidence by bringing back community-led, visible policing. West Mercia Police will receive £3,108,283 as part of the funding settlement for 2025-26.In addition, the Home Office is providing £66.3 million funding in 2025-26 to all 43 forces in England and Wales to deliver high visibility patrols in the areas worst affected by knife crime, serious violence and anti-social behaviour. As part of the Hotspot Action Fund, West Mercia Police will be in receipt of £1,000,000.The Winter of Action which commenced on the 1 December 2025 and will run to 31 January 2026, is currently underway, focusing on making town centres safer across England and Wales. This initiative builds on the Safer Streets Summer Initiative, continuing efforts to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour, while also addressing retail crime and night-time economy offences, particularly during darker evenings when risks to public safety increase. West Mercia have listed 14 areas, and Shropshire have listed 3 areas as part of the Winter of Action.Through our Crime and Policing Bill, we are making our streets and neighbourhoods safer by strengthening the powers available to the police and other agencies to tackle anti-social behaviour. This includes introducing new Respect Orders to give local agencies stronger enforcement capability to tackle the most persistent adult anti-social behaviour offenders, and powers for the police to seize nuisance off-road bikes, and other vehicles which are being used in an anti-social manner, without having to first give a warning to the offender.

What funding is available from her Department for local crime prevention measures in rural areas.

Rural crime can have devastating consequences for countryside communities and the agricultural sector. We are improving the protections for rural communities, with tougher measures to clamp down on equipment theft, anti-social behaviour, strengthened neighbourhood policing and stronger measures to prevent farm theft and fly-tipping. This financial year the Home Office has provided the first Government funding since 2023 for the National Rural Crime Unit (£365,000) as well as continuing funding for the National Wildlife Crime Unit (£450,000). The National Rural Crime Unit work with police forces and rural communities to promote the use of crime prevention measures such as Rural Watch. We have also worked closely with the National Police Chiefs’ Council to deliver their updated Rural and Wildlife Crime Strategy for 2025-2028. The strategy highlights how policing can assist in the prevention of crime in rural areas. It is the responsibility of Chief Constables and locally elected Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), including Mayors who exercise PCC or equivalent functions, to take decisions around the allocation of their funding and resources.

Communities and Local Government, if he will reinstate financial support for the development of neighbourhood plans.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 59114 on 19 June 2025.

Communities and Local Government, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the cost of extending Energy Performance Certificate regulations to short-term holiday lets on the finances of owners of those properties.

We expect that the impact of extending Energy Performance of Buildings regulations to short-term holiday lets on the finances of owners of those properties will be minimal. We published an impact assessment alongside our consultation on reforms, accessible here: Reforms to the Energy Performance of Buildings regime: impact assessment, in which we modelled the cost of obtaining a domestic EPC at £70, which are valid for 10 years. We are keeping the impacts of the proposals under review, and will publish a government response shortly.

What assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the prevalence of the use of non-disclosure agreements during corporate restructuring in safety-critical sectors.

The Government is unable to assess the prevalence of the use of non-disclosure agreements across the economy, including in specific sectors, as they are private contractual agreements and data on their use is not collected. While NDAs can lawfully be used to require one or more parties to keep certain information confidential (for example, trade secrets), there are a range of legal limitations on their use. For example, NDAs cannot prevent someone from making a whistleblowing disclosure (known formally as a “protected disclosure”) or a disclosure required by law.

Food and Rural Affairs, if she will increase the level of support available for the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme.

The Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) programme is due to end March 2026, and decisions on the future of the programme will be made as part of departmental business planning.

Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to improve the sustainability of local authority leisure centres.

The Government recognises the importance of ensuring public access to leisure facilities which are vital spaces for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy, and which play an important role within communities. The ongoing responsibility of providing access to public leisure facilities lies at local authority level with funding levels set as part of the Local Government Finance Settlement. The Government encourages local authorities to make investments which offer the right opportunities and facilities for the communities they serve, investing in sport and physical activity with a place-based approach, to meet the needs of individual communities. In June, we committed another £400 million to transform sports facilities across the whole of the UK over the next four years, supporting the Government's Plan for Change. We are working closely with sporting bodies and local leaders to establish what communities need, before setting out further plans on how future funding will be allocated.

What steps he is taking to promote limestone insulation as an energy efficiency measure.

The government does not promote one measure over another, instead energy efficiency measures installed under current Government energy efficiency schemes must be compliant with PAS 2035/2030 to ensure installations are done to the highest quality and the risk of unintended consequences, such as condensation or damp, are minimised.

Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to support conservation projects in churches at risk.

The Department supports the conservation of historic places of worship, including those at risk, through several channels. The Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme was extended for a further year in January 2025 to March 2026, with a £23 million budget. This scheme helps religious organisations reclaim the VAT costs of eligible repairs and renovations, which supports the conservation of these vital heritage and community assets. In exceptional circumstances, listed places of worship may be eligible for Heritage at Risk funding provided by Historic England. In addition, the Department funded the £15 million Heritage At Risk Capital Fund in the 2025/26 financial year. Out of 37 projects awarded funding through this capital fund, 4 were places of worship, receiving a total of £1,387,842 for their conservation projects.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of of green levies on utility bills.

The key to bringing down energy bills in the long term is clean power. With gas prices still significantly higher than historic levels, our exposure to international fossil fuel markets is still the main driver of high energy bills.Taken together, the actions announced by my Rt. Hon. Friend the Chancellor at the Budget take an average £150 of costs off people’s energy bills and deliver on funding more of the investment we need in our energy system through public expenditure rather than levies. £7 billion worth of the historic Renewables Obligation levy has been moved into public expenditure and the ECO scheme has been scrapped. The government is delivering the biggest public investment in home energy efficiency ever, increasing the settlement we received at the Spending Review.

What action is being taken to support SEND transport costs in South Shropshire constituency.

Central government funding for home-to-school travel is provided through the Local Government Finance Settlement which is administered by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The Settlement for the 2025/26 financial year makes available over £69 billion for local government, a 6.8% cash terms increase in Core Spending Power on 2024/25. To put local government on the road to financial sustainability, the government recently consulted on funding reforms, including a bespoke relative needs formula for home-to-school transport. The consultation response was published here on 20 November:https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/the-fair-funding-review-20. Challenges in the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system are creating pressure on home-to-school travel. We have committed to reform the SEND system to enable more children to thrive in local mainstream settings. These reforms will be set out in a Schools White Paper early in the new year.

Food and Rural Affairs, what action is being taken to improve food security in South Shropshire constituency and the West Midlands.

Food security is monitored via the UK Food Security Report, produced every three years (most recently December 2024). This gives an international, national, and household food security assessment. Additionally, we will be publishing an annual food security digest report in the years in between. The UK has a resilient food supply chain and is equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption. Food security is built on supply from diverse sources, strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes. Imports supplements domestic production, helping manage seasonality and ensures that any disruption from risks such as adverse weather or disease does not affect the UK's overall security of supply.

What steps his Department is taking to increase the number of community diagnostic hubs in South Shropshire constituency.

Community diagnostic centres (CDCs) are delivering additional, digitally connected, diagnostic capacity in England, providing patients with a co-ordinated set of tests in the community in as few visits as possible, to enable fast and accurate diagnosesCDCs help to separate urgent and elective care, providing additional capacity in the community and relieving pressure on hospitals.As of September 2025, CDCs are now delivering additional tests and checks on 170 sites across the country and have delivered over 9.4 million tests, checks and scans, including large, standard, and hub and spoke models, since July 2024.The Elective Reform Plan sets out that the Government will deliver additional CDC capacity in 2025/26 by expanding a number of existing CDCs and building up to five new CDCs. The locations of both new and expanded CDC schemes will be confirmed in due course. This is funded as part of the £600 million of capital investment for diagnostics in 2025/26, which my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer set out in the June 2025 statement.There are no CDCs in the South Shropshire constituency. However, there is a CDC in Telford, the Shropshire CDC. Constituents may also have access to diagnostic services at the Royal Shrewsbury and Robert and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospitals. Diagnostic services are also available in the community hospitals run by the Shrewsbury Community Health NHS Trust in Bridgnorth, Ludlow, and Whitchurch, as well as the health centre in Oswestry.CDCs, even if not local to a constituent, will add capacity to the wider integrated care system. They, therefore, benefit more than just those patients immediately close to them.

What action is being taken to increase scam awareness in rural communities.

Whilst it is vital we continue to target the criminals behind fraud and make it harder for them to operate, we want to increase awareness across all communities to help people.We are working with City of London Police (CoLP) to support their coordination of the Fraud Protect Network. The network is made up of local, regional and national law enforcement officers and is designed to reduce the threat of fraud and revictimisation by providing consistent protect messaging and safeguarding advice to the public, including those in rural communities.Additionally, the Government has continued to fund the national ‘Stop! Think Fraud’ awareness campaign to equip the public with useful protective behaviours against fraud. The campaign, and supporting website, make it easier for the public to recognise fraud and take steps to protect themselves, their family and friends.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of increases in the cost of shotgun licences on funding for youth activities.

On 5 February 2025, increased fees came into effect to provide full-cost recovery for firearms licensing applications processed by police forces. This was the first increase in fees for 10 years and we intend to undertake more regular reviews in the future.The need to increase firearms licensing fees to help address shortcomings in firearms licensing was highlighted by the Senior Coroner in his Preventing Future Deaths reports into the fatal shootings in Plymouth in August 2021.It is important that the additional revenue from firearms licensing fees is used to support improvements in police force firearms licensing teams, and my predecessor, Dame Diana Johnson MP, wrote to all Police and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables to make clear that the increased fees must be used for this purpose.Whilst the Government’s manifesto commitment referred to the money raised by full cost recovery fees being used to support youth interventions to prevent serious violence, it was decided instead ahead of the February 2025 increase to fees, that firearms fees income must be retained by police forces to support improvements in police firearms licensing.

What assessment he has made of trends in the level of the use of Non-Disclosure Agreements during corporate restructuring in safety-critical sectors in the context of the Employment Tribunal correction in Unite v MAEL.

The Government cannot comment on individual cases. In addition, the Government is unable to assess sector-based trends on the use of non-disclosure agreements as they are private contractual agreements and data on their use is not collected.

When she plans to reply to the email from the hon. Member for South Shropshire dated 19 June 2025 with case reference number SA34564.

The Government is committed to transparency and accountability, including through clear and timely responses to correspondence. Your correspondence dated 19 June was passed to the Equalities Minister responsible for the UK equality framework; you should have now received the reply.