We understand that the global spike in oil and gas prices has affected the price of agricultural commodities, which are always closely correlated to energy costs. The Energy Bill Relief Scheme will provide a price reduction to make sure that all businesses, including farmers, food producers, manufacturers and packagers, are protected from excessively high energy bills over the winter period.

HM Government is also supporting businesses to improve their energy efficiency by at least 20% by 2030. This could deliver up to £6 billion in cost savings by 2030. We have extended the Energy Intensive Industries Compensation Scheme by three years and more than doubled its budget.

We recognise that for the pig and poultry sectors, animal feed is a substantial input cost. As of 1st June, we have successfully concluded the removal of Section 232 tariffs, allowing us to remove the 25% tariff on US maize imports, a key ingredient for animal feed.

Defra has a collaborative relationship with industry which allows us to effectively respond to disruption, should it occur. This was successfully demonstrated in response to unprecedented disruption to both supply and demand throughout COVID-19.

We continue to keep the market situation under review through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group, which monitors UK agricultural markets including price, supply, inputs, trade and recent developments. We have also increased our engagement with industry to supplement our analysis with real time intelligence.

The Government raised this in its technical consultation on the Energy Bills Support Scheme. The responses to this consultation are being analysed and will be published later in the summer.

Vulnerable consumers, including park home residents will be eligible for a £150 contribution towards their energy bills each winter through the Government’s Warm Home Discount Scheme. It is anticipated that the Park Homes Warm Home Discount scheme will re-open again in September 2022. There will also be payments to households on means tested benefits and pensioner and disability cost of living payments. Other support available includes the Winter Fuel Payments and Cold Weather Payments.

Ofgem’s Maximum Resale Price provisions prevent landlords from reselling energy to residents at a higher price than they paid to the licensed energy supplier.

Customers without a domestic electricity supply contract are not eligible for the Energy Bills Support Scheme, so the Government is exploring options for other ways in which they might receive similar support. This was raised in a recent Government consultation and a response will be published later in the summer. The Government has also provided £144 million of discretionary funding for Local Authorities to support households who need support but are not eligible for the Council Tax reduction.

We have recognised that increasing input costs, particularly fertiliser, feed, fuel and energy, are creating short term pressures on cash flow.

The Secretary of State recently announced a range of measures in support of the current situation, such as delaying changes to the use of urea fertiliser to help farmers manage their costs and improving statutory guidance for use of slurry. On 31 March I also hosted the first meeting of the Fertiliser Taskforce with key industry bodies to discuss potential mitigations to the challenges which global supply pressures are causing. Ministers will continue to meet with key industry bodies for further Fertiliser Taskforce sessions in the coming months, to help identify and mitigate potential risks.

In addition, the 2022 Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payment will be made in two instalments to give farmers an advance injection of cash. Farmers with eligible applications will receive half of their payment from the end of July, and the rest from December. By doing this, the Government intends to inject cash into farm businesses, helping them to make business decisions sooner, with more confidence.

This builds on the increase in revenue payment rates for the Countryside Stewardship scheme to reflect the change in costs since 2013, which Defra announced in January 2022. The majority of payment rates increased, on average by around 30%, although rate changes vary from option to option. These changes affected around 30,000 agreements.

In March 2022, Defra began rolling out the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) to recipients of the BPS. SFI will help with the costs of sowing nitrogen fixing plants and green manures in crops to substitute some fertiliser requirements for the coming season, as well as reducing the dependence on manufactured fertilisers which are impacted by the price of gas. Rising fertiliser prices highlight that we need to find alternatives and move towards more organic-based fertiliser products. SFI is designed to help farmers move to these new sustainable farming methods gradually - which will improve environmental conditions of the land, while building the long-term resilience of our food security and production

We continue to keep the market situation under review through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group, which monitors UK agricultural markets including price, supply, inputs, trade and recent developments. We have also increased our engagement with industry to supplement our analysis with real time intelligence.

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care regularly meets with Cabinet colleagues to discuss a range of topics. The Government has committed £16 billion in funding to local authorities over the current five-year spending review period to tackle public health issues, which includes alcohol and drug treatment services, and there are no plans to increase funding further at this time.

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care regularly meets with Cabinet colleagues to discuss a range of topics. The Government has committed £16 billion in funding to local authorities over the current five-year spending review period to tackle public health issues, which includes alcohol and drug treatment services, and there are no plans to increase funding further at this time.

The Department of Health and Social Care has provided £16 billion to local authorities over five years for public health services, including for alcohol and drug treatment, and there are currently no plans to increase this funding further.

The Secretary of State has not met the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to discuss the prescribing of buprenorphine. Funding to local authorities for public health is provided by the Department of Health and Social Care.

The Department does not hold information on the number of customers of energy suppliers who are on a company’s standard variable tariff. It does hold data on the proportion of each of the big six large energy suppliers’ customers who were on standard variable tariff in March 2016. I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I have given today to Question UIN 52275.

The Department does not routinely collect information on the proportion of customers of energy suppliers who are on a company’s standard variable tariff.

The Department holds data on the proportion of each of the six large energy suppliers’ customers who were on standard variable tariffs in March 2016, but it does not hold information about the length of time customers have been on those tariffs.

The information held by the department was provided by the regulator Ofgem pursuant to its statutory functions of providing advice, information and assistance to the Secretary of State on request (section 34(4) of the Gas Act 1986 and section 47(3) of the Electricity Act 1989). Insofar as the data relates to particular energy suppliers my department is restricted by section 105 of the Utilities Act 2000 from disclosing it except in accordance with that section.

The commission arrangements between price comparison websites and energy suppliers are commercial matters for the individual companies concerned. The Department does not hold information on whether these price comparison companies charge different rates of commission to different energy suppliers.

The commission arrangements between price comparison websites and energy suppliers are commercial matters for the individual companies concerned. The Department does not hold information on how much commission these price comparison companies earn from energy suppliers per single and dual fuel energy switch.

The Department collects tariff level data from energy suppliers in confidence and is therefore unable to publish this at an individual company level. Aggregate data is published online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/quarterly-energy-prices. This shows that around 70% of domestic gas and electricity customers are on variable tariffs. These include standard variable and any tariff whereby the price is not fixed for a set period of time.

The Department collects data on the number of customers on dual fuel tariffs from energy suppliers in confidence. The Department is therefore unable to publish any comparisons between companies or data on the proportion of dual fuel customers for each supplier in each region.

The Department does not hold information on the proportion of customers of energy suppliers who have moved onto a new fixed price tariff with the same or different energy supplier at the end of a fixed price tariff.

The commission arrangements between price comparison websites and energy suppliers are commercial matters for the individual companies concerned. The Department does not hold information on the average commission these price comparison companies charge the energy supply companies referred to, per single and dual fuel energy switch.

The commission arrangements between price comparison websites and energy suppliers are commercial matters for the individual companies concerned. The Department does not hold information on the average commission these price comparison companies charge the energy supply companies referred to, per single and dual fuel energy switch.

The Department does not hold information on the profit margin for customers of energy suppliers on the standard variable tariff.

DECC collect data from the energy companies in order to provide estimates of the average annual domestic bills. Data is provided in confidence and therefore DECC do not disclose this data. DECC do not calculate or publish estimates of average annual bills by supplier.