Written questions by Morton.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the oral statement by the Prime Minister of 25 February 2025 on Defence and Security, Official Report, column 634, what steps he plans to take to provide humanitarian support in Sudan; and which aid programmes will continue to operate.

The Sudan conflict has created the largest and most severe humanitarian crisis in the world with over 30 million people in need of assistance. UK funded organisations are providing life-saving assistance in Sudan and to those who have sought refuge in Chad and other neighbouring countries. This financial year (FY) the UK will provide £226.5 million towards the crisis. This funding includes support to key UN agencies such as the World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF who are providing critical food assistance and other support. We are also one of the largest donors to the UN-led Sudan Humanitarian Fund (SHF) which provides support to local and national responders, Emergency Response Rooms and international non-governmental organisations. The UK continues to support the International Committee of the Red Cross, including their work on emergency preparedness and response, protection of civilians, and providing life-saving healthcare across Sudan. Once budgets for FY 25/26 have been finalised we will be able to share information about those programmes that will continue.

Pursuant to the Answer of 11 March 2025 to Question 36079 on Bus Services and Railways: Employers' Contributions, how much and what proportion of the £1 billion additional funding for buses will be spent on the increase to employer's National Insurance contributions.

The £1 billion of funding for buses awarded as part of the Budget includes £712 million allocated to local authorities to support and improve bus services. Local authorities can use this funding however they wish to improve bus services for passengers. In addition, over £150 million is being provided to bus operators to deliver the £3 cap on single bus fares in England outside London throughout 2025, and £243 million is being made available to bus operators through the Bus Service Operators Grant to support services.

How much revenue the Exchequer has raised from the application of VAT to private school fees since 1 January 2025.

The Annex to the Government Response to the Technical Note, Government_Response_to_the_Technical_Note_on_Applying_VAT_to_Private_School_Fees_and_Removing_the_Business_Rates_Charitable_Rate_Relief.pdf, sets out the expected VAT revenue resulting from this measure and the costing methodology. The Government estimates that it will raise £460 million this year, rising to £1,725 million in 2029/30. VAT revenue overall is recognised in the National Accounts on an accruals basis. As set out in the above Annex, the VAT liability in 2024/25 is time apportioned for the implementation date of 1 January 2025. The actual VAT liability reported on VAT returns for any month or quarter will depend on various factors, including the date when schools meet the requirement to register for VAT (if not already registered), and which of the staggered quarterly accounting periods apply to the business. VAT returns are generally due one month and seven days after the end of the accounting period.

Pursuant to the Answer of 11 March 2025 to Question 36082 on Neighbourhood Policing: Finance, how much and what proportion of the funding allocated for the financial year 2025-26 has been allocated to cover the increase in employer National Insurance contributions.

The Government is committed to delivering our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, and that is why we have committed £200 million to kickstart the increase of 13,000 neighbourhood officers in communities across England and Wales by the End of this Parliament.Our approach to delivery in 2025-26, which will be year 1 of a 4-year programme, is designed to deliver an initial increase to the neighbourhood policing workforce in a manner that is flexible and can be adapted to the local context and varied crime demands.Funding for future years beyond 2025-26 will be set out in phase 2 of the Spending Review.Finally, £230.3 million to support forces with the cost of the changes to employer National Insurance Contributions as set out by the Chancellor in the Autumn Budget. This will be allocated by total workforce headcount shares as at 31 March 2024.

Whether her Department plans to make an assessment of the potential impact of the application of VAT to private school fees on the long-term finances of (a) private and (b) state education sectors.

The Government has published a detailed costing note and Tax Impact and Information Note (TIIN) assessing the impacts of applying VAT to private school fees, including impacts on private schools and state schools: Private school fees — VAT measure - GOV.UK How to fund VAT costs is a commercial decision for individual schools. The Government estimates that private school fees will increase by around 10% on average. The number of children in independent schools has remained steady despite c75% real terms increase in average private school fees since 2000. The Government estimates that, in the long-term steady state, there will be 35,000 additional pupils in the state school sector, which is less than 0.5% of all state schools. Based on average 2024 to 2025 per-pupil spending in England, the government expects the revenue costs of pupils entering the state sector as a result of the VAT policy across the UK to steadily increase to a peak of around £270 million per annum after several years. In comparison, the Government estimates that the policy will raise over £1.7bn per annum by 2029/30.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to implement the provisions of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024.

I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 21 November 2024 (HCWS244).

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, what steps she plans to take to ensure that new electricity transmission infrastructure is integrated with local development plans.

Measures are already in place that ensure infrastructure provision is considered in the local plan-making process. The National Planning Policy Framework makes clear that plans should be deliverable over the plan period, which will include ensuring that the required infrastructure, included energy infrastructure, can be provided to support proposed development. Infrastructure providers will be consulted where relevant and would be expected to advise on whether any capacity constraints exist that could prevent planned development being deliverable.

Communities and Local Government, what discussions she has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on plans to reform the Local Government Pension Scheme.

The Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) reforms are taking place as part of the Chancellor’s Pensions Review. As the Ministers responsible for the LGPS in England and Wales, the Deputy Prime Minister and I are working closely with the Minister for Pensions and the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the reforms to the LGPS and our shared priorities in relation to the Pensions Review.

What steps she is taking to help improve the effectiveness of the (a) collection and (b) dissemination of neighbourhood crime data.

Information on offences including vehicle-related theft, domestic burglary, theft from the person and robbery of personal property is routinely included in the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Crime Survey for England Wales and by the Home Office from police forces based on crimes reported to the police in England and Wales. The ONS already publishes such data in their quarterly ‘Crime in England and Wales’ statistics release.

Pursuant to the Answer of 11 March 2025 to Question 36079 on Bus Services and Railways: Employers' Contributions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the planned increase in employer's National Insurance contributions on the (a) operating costs of bus operators and (b) viability of bus routes.

The increase to National Insurance employers’ contributions announced at the Budget is expected to increase bus operator costs, but the Department has made no estimate of the specific costs. We are committed to working with the sector to deliver better bus services for passengers. In the Budget, the government confirmed investment of over £1 billion to support and improve bus services and keep fares affordable. West Midlands Combined Authority has been allocated nearly £50 million of this funding for the 2025 to 2026 financial year to support and improve bus services.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to provide additional financial support to local authorities to meet the cost of disposing of fly-tipped waste.

Defra has no current plans to provide additional financial support to local authorities to meet the cost of disposing of fly-tipped waste. We are considering how we can support local authorities to tackle fly-tipping in other ways. Indeed, we are seeking powers in the Crime and Policing Bill to provide statutory enforcement guidance to help local authorities run an effective enforcement service which deters people from dumping waste in our communities. Revenue from fixed penalty notices must also be spent on enforcement or cleaning up fly-tipping. The majority of funding in the Local Government Finance Settlement is unringfenced recognising that local leaders are best placed to identify local priorities, such as fly-tipping. Funding announced by the Chancellor at the Autumn Budget and through the 2025-26 Local Government Finance Settlement will provide over £5 billion of new funding for local services over and above local council tax.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme on farmers who had planned to transition to the new land management practices under the Environmental Land Management scheme; and what plans his Department has to support those farmers.

On 11 March 2025, we published forecasts which suggest that Average Farm Business Income has risen in 2024/25 across all farm types with the exception of cereal farms. This follows a fall in income for most farm types in 2023/24, after some exceptional highs in the two preceding years. This Government is proud to have secured the largest budget for sustainable food production in our country’s history, with £5 billion being spent to support farmers over a 2-year period. 50,000 farm businesses are already in agri-environmental schemes. SFI is an important offer, but it is part of a wider package. We remain committed to investing in agri-environment schemes. We plan to launch the new Higher Tier scheme later this year; Capital Grants will re-open in summer 2025; we continue to move forward with Landscape Recovery; and we are increasing payment rates for Higher Level Stewardship agreement holders to recognise their ongoing commitment to delivering environmental outcome. Funding from the farming budget also supports the provision of advice within the sector. The Farming Advice Service can assist farmers to review what advice and guidance is available to meet their business needs.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department had discussions with (a) farming groups and (b) stakeholders prior to the decision to close the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme.

The high uptake of the scheme means it is fully subscribed. The decision to close the scheme to new applications was taken at that point. We could not give any advance notice because we needed to ensure fair access to the scheme and avoid creating a sudden increase in the level of demand. Since we launched the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) in 2022 we have worked closely with the farming sector and stakeholders to develop and improve the offer to make sure it worked for as many different farmers and land types as possible. We will continue to do this in order to develop the reformed SFI offer.

What the annual quota for each of the Youth Mobility Scheme partner countries (a) was in 2024 and (b) is in 2025.

Quotas for the UK’s Youth Mobility Scheme visa route are published in Appendix Youth Mobility Scheme: eligible nationals of the Immigration Rules. The quotas for the upcoming year were set out in Statement of changes to the Immigration Rules HC 733 on 12 March and will be implemented in the Immigration Rules on 9 April. Quota information from previous years is also published online in the archived Immigration Rules.For 2024, we allocated the following quotas for each of our partner countries:- Andorra – 100 places- Australia – 45,000 places- Canada – 8,000 places- Hong Kong – 1,000 places- Iceland – 1,000 places- India – 3,000 places- Japan – 6,000 places- Monaco – 1,000 places- New Zealand – 8,500 places- Republic of Korea - 5,000 places- San Marino – 1,000 places- Taiwan – 1,000 places- Uruguay – 500 places.For 2025, we have allocated the following quotas for each of our partner countries:- Andorra – 100 places- Australia – 42,000 places- Canada – 10,000 places- Hong Kong – 1,000 places- Iceland – 1,000 places- India – 3,000 places- Japan – 6,000 places- Monaco – 1,000 places- New Zealand – 9,500 places- Republic of Korea - 5,000 places- San Marino – 1,000 places- Taiwan – 1,000 places- Uruguay – 500 places.

Food and Rural Affairs, how many incidents of fly-tipping have been reported in the 2024-25 financial year.

Local authorities in England are required to report fly-tipping incidents to Defra, which are published annually at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/fly-tipping-in-england. Data for the 2023/24 reporting year is available at this link. Data for the 2024/25 reporting year is still being collected.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether his department conducted an impact assessment before the decision to close the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme was made.

We publish regular statistics on Farm Business Income broken down in various ways. Farming evidence packs have been recently updated including key statistics and farm performance. These set out an extensive range of data to provide an overview of agriculture in the UK. We will continue to carry out appropriate and timely assessments of our interventions to inform policy development. On the 11 of March 2025, we published forecasts which suggest that average Farm Business Income has risen in 2024/25 across all farm types with the exception of cereal farms. This follows a fall in income for most farm types in 2023/24, after some exceptional highs in the two preceding years. Across England, 50,000 farm businesses are already in agri-environmental schemes. We will open up initial applications for CS Higher tier and a revised ELM capital grants offer later in the Summer.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she plans to take to ensure that housing developments agreed through the accelerated planning process under the Planning and Infrastructure Bill align with the unique needs of local communities.

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill will improve certainty and decision-making in the planning system, including through introducing a new scheme of delegation to modernise local planning committees, and increasing the capacity of local planning authorities by enabling the cost recovery of planning fees.It is local development plans that set out a vision and a framework for the future development of any given area, addressing needs and opportunities in relation to housing, the economy, community facilities and essential infrastructure – as well as a basis for conserving and enhancing the natural and historic environment, mitigating and adapting to climate change, and achieving well designed places.Local plans are the best way for communities to shape decisions about how to deliver the housing and wider development that their areas need.

What information her Department holds on the number of children who transferred from private to state schools in the first three months of (a) 2024 and (b) 2025.

Data on pupil numbers in the state-funded and private school sectors is collected in January and published in June each year. This shows how pupil numbers at different types of school have changed over time.In January 2023 there were 591,954 pupils in independent schools. In January 2024, this number had increased by 1,532 to 593,486.This data is published at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/f3ef2b69-9a02-4040-1972-08dd660c60ce. Pupil numbers for January 2025 will be published in June 2025.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the application of VAT on private school fees on the (a) accessibility and (b) quality of state education.

As set out in HM Treasury’s tax information and impact note published on GOV.UK, the introduction of VAT is anticipated to have a very limited impact on the number of pupils in state and private schools. The department has not seen any evidence that contradicts the expectations set out in the government’s impact assessment.Ending tax breaks on private schools will help raise around £1.8 billion per year by the 2029/30 financial year for investment in public services, including state-funded education which serves 94% of children. This will help break down barriers to opportunity, ensuring every child has access to high-quality education.​Local authorities are responsible for securing school places for children in their area. Pupil numbers in schools fluctuate for a number of reasons, and the school funding system is already set up to manage that. The department provides capital funding through the basic need grant to support the provision of mainstream school places, based on local authorities’ own pupil forecasts and school capacity data.

What steps her Department is taking to help support state schools with trends in the level of demand for state school places following the application of VAT to private school fees.

As set out in HM Treasury’s tax information and impact note published on GOV.UK, the introduction of VAT is anticipated to have a very limited impact on the number of pupils in state and private schools. The department has not seen any evidence that contradicts the expectations set out in the government’s impact assessment.Ending tax breaks on private schools will help raise around £1.8 billion per year by the 2029/30 financial year for investment in public services, including state-funded education which serves 94% of children. This will help break down barriers to opportunity, ensuring every child has access to high-quality education.​Local authorities are responsible for securing school places for children in their area. Pupil numbers in schools fluctuate for a number of reasons, and the school funding system is already set up to manage that. The department provides capital funding through the basic need grant to support the provision of mainstream school places, based on local authorities’ own pupil forecasts and school capacity data.