We are encouraging councils to take tougher action against fly-tippers. Under the Prime Minister’s Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan we have significantly increased the upper limit on fixed penalty notices for fly-tipping to £1,000 and the income from these penalties must now be reinvested in enforcement or cleaning up sites affected by fly-tipping, such as natural environments.

We appreciate the difficulty that fly-tipping poses to landowners. We are working with stakeholders, such as the National Farmers Union and local authorities, to share good practice including how to prevent fly-tipping on private land. We are also currently funding a post within the new National Rural Crime Unit to explore how the police’s role in tacking fly-tipping can be optimised, with a focus on rural areas.

Across three rounds of our fly-tipping grant scheme, we have now awarded nearly £2.2m to help more than 50 councils tackle fly-tipping at known hot-spots, including in rural areas, such as by installing CCTV. In addition to supporting more infrastructure, the latest round of projects will also help to raise awareness of the household waste duty of care to reduce the chance of waste getting into the hands of fly-tippers in the first place. A selection of case studies from earlier projects have been published so that others can learn about those interventions which were most successful. These are available here.

Our Delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services sets out the range of measures being taken to reduce ambulance and emergency department waiting times, including in Yorkshire.

Backed by £1 billion of dedicated funding, we delivered 5,000 additional core hospital beds in 2023/24 and will maintain this capacity expansion in 2024/25. Ambulance trusts received £200 million of additional funding in 2023/24 to increase deployed hours and reduce response times, which will also be maintained this year.

Since we published our plan there have been significant improvements in emergency care performance, including in Yorkshire. In 2023/24, average Category 2 ambulance response times in Yorkshire were over nine minutes faster compared to the previous year, a reduction of 23%, and performance against the four-hour standard for accident and emergency care improved in each integrated care board area in Yorkshire.

The NHS Planning Guidance, published in March, commits to further improvements in emergency care performance in 2024/25, with more information available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/operational-planning-and-contracting/

The Government recognises there are a range of views on onshore wind, which is why we have ensured community views must be considered. In September 2023, the Government made changes to planning rules in England to ensure that the planning impacts identified by the affected local community are appropriately addressed and the proposal has community support.

National Highways are due to complete repairs on the Ouse bridge by September 2024 when the temporary speed limit will be lifted, and all lanes opened to traffic in both directions. Whilst there will be some residual work after all the lanes open, it will not impact road users.

A small number of cyber-attacks against National Health Service hospitals have been made public, but the specific details on the number, nature, and subsectors of NHS organisations that have been victims of a ransomware attack in the last twelve months cannot be released, as it may prejudice the prevention or detection of cyber-attacks against the NHS.

Our around-the-clock cyber monitoring across over 1.5 million NHS computers allows us to identify that ransomware is the most significant cyber security threat currently facing the health and social care sector. Automated cyber defences and monitoring by NHS England’s Cyber Operations teams continuously deter, prevent, and disrupt attempts to break into the NHS’ IT systems. The NHS implements the Government’s policy of not condoning ransom payment.

The world leading National Cyber Security Centre provides comprehensive guidance to all UK public bodies on how to respond to ransomware attacks, which can be found. The guidance is clear that central Government funds will not be used by Government departments or Arms Length Bodies (ALBs) to pay ransomware demands and this stance was publicly reiterated in November 2023 when the UK, along with other members of the Counter Ransomware Initiative, signed a joint statement discouraging anyone from paying a ransomware demand.

NHS England and the Department for Education provide bespoke guidance for their respective sectors which is consistent with the wider government’s approach. The Department is committed to harnessing expertise on this subject, including recently hosting a roundtable discussion on academic security with the support of the NCSC, to ensure that guidance continues to be appropriate for the developing threat.

We are on track to meeting the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan’s aim to double the number of medical school places in England, from 7,500 to 15,000 places a year by 2031/32. We have accelerated this expansion by allocating 205 additional medical school places for the 2024/25 academic year, and have provisionally allocated a further 350 additional places for the 2025/26 academic year. Final allocations will be published shortly. This will build on the expansion of medical school places in England to 7,500 per year, a 25% increase, that the Government completed in 2020, and which delivered five new medical schools.

The following rules apply to farmers eligible for support from the Farming Recovery Fund. Farmers will receive payments for all land parcels which are flooded contiguous to a river with notably high river level gauge readings following Storm Henk during 2 to 12 January 2024. The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) will determine those farm businesses who are eligible and the amount of funding they could claim. If there are questions, then the farmer should write to the RPA.

More details on the rules and eligibility guidance on implementation of the support available for other schemes activated under the Flood Recovery Framework was sent to Local Authorities, who manage the support provided by the Framework where it has been activated. Further review of the scheme is underway. Support available for farm businesses and residencies includes:

• Where a farm operates a SME ancillary business which is severely impacted by flooding, they were eligible to receive up to £2,500 under the Business Recovery Grant in respect of the ancillary business. This scheme closed to new applications on 12 April.
• They can receive up to £5,000 to eligible flood hit property owners to help make their homes and businesses more resilient to future floods under the Property Flood Resilience Repair Grant; and
• They may also be eligible for Business Rate Relief.

These schemes are run by the relevant Local Authorities and any decisions on appeals should be directed to them to review.

Whilst there are no currently planned schemes to resurface the A1 between Newark and Grantham, it is inspected on a weekly basis and appropriate action is taken to address any safety critical defects within 24 hours.

The Secretary of State regularly meets with the National Farmers’ Union (NFU). In the last month he has met with the NFU President, Tom Bradshaw, during a visit to Dartmoor to discuss the Government’s response to the Fursdon Review. He also met with the NFU’s Deputy President, David Exwood, during a Farm Tenancy Forum in March to discuss the implementation of Kate Rock’s tenant farming review.

As the Minister of State for Food, Farming and Fisheries, I also have frequent engagement with the pig sector and officials meet with representatives of the National Pig Association on a regular basis.

Further to the answer given to Question UIN 15378 on 20 February 2024, following the call for evidence, we intend to publish a consultation on the caps on parking charges and debt recovery fees this year. The government is committed to reissuing the Code as quickly as possible.

National Highways recognises that ragwort poisoning can have a devastating effect on horses, as well as being damaging to cattle and other animals. However, in the right place, and where there is no risk to animal welfare, ragwort contributes to the biodiversity of the flora and fauna of the countryside.

On the strategic road network, where ragwort presents a high risk of poisoning horses and livestock or spreading to fields used for the production of forage, National Highways prevents ragwort spreading. National Highways policy for Common Ragwort control applies Defra’s ‘Code of Practice on how to Prevent the Spread of Ragwort’.

The Government takes crimes against wildlife and against pets seriously, including those involving the use of catapults. Under provisions in the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, The Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996 and Animal Welfare Act 2006, there are a range of offences around deliberate attempts to kill, injure or inflict harm on wildlife and in the event that a member of the public believes such an offence has taken place, they are encouraged to report the matter to the police so they can investigate. In particular where pets are concerned, it is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 to cause an animal any unnecessary suffering. The Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021 realises the Government’s manifesto commitment to increase the sentences available to our courts for the most serious cases of animal cruelty by increasing the maximum penalty for this offence to 5 years’ imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales data shows a 56% fall in domestic burglaries when comparing the year ending September 2023 with year ending March 2010. This is clearly good news; however, we recognise the impact domestic burglary can have on individuals and communities and we are committed to tackling and preventing this crime.

The public rightly expects that the police will visit them when a home burglary has been committed, which is why we welcome the announcement made by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) on 8 June 2023 that all 43 police forces in England and Wales have been implementing this attendance policy since March 2023. https://news.npcc.police.uk/releases/police-now-attending-scene-of-every-home-burglary.

The police commitment to attend home burglaries is supported by specific College of Policing good practice guidance on conducting residential burglary investigations: https://www.college.police.uk/guidance/residential-burglary.

We continue to liaise with Humberside Police and the NPCC who play a key role in tackling burglary through an array of different forums, including the Residential Burglary Taskforce and the National Policing Board. We are also working with police leaders across England and Wales to ensure forces are making their attendance data available to the public.

HMICFRS will be doing an inspection on Investigations shortly.

Information on the number of individual requests for healthcare services for prisoners at HMP Full Sutton is not collected centrally. Healthcare services for the prison population at HMP Full Sutton are commissioned by NHS England, to ensure they are of an equivalent quality and standard to National Health Service care and treatment provided in the community. The range of services available to all 600 male prisoners at the facility includes general practitioner services, dental services, ophthalmic services, mental health services, and public health services, including substance misuse services.

The frequency and capacity of healthcare sessions commissioned at HMP Full Sutton is informed by the contracting and performance management process. Quarterly quality and performance reports are provided to commissioners, highlighting any service pressures and actions being taken to address workforce or access issues. New provider contracts will come into effect from 1 June 2024, with services being further strengthened to meet the needs of the prisoner population.

According to the independent website Thinkbroadband.com, over 96% of premises in the East Yorkshire constituency can access a superfast connection. Over 77% of premises are able to access a gigabit-capable connection, up from just 4% in December 2019.

We recently announced a £60 million Project Gigabit contract to further extend gigabit broadband coverage in West and parts of North Yorkshire, including in the East Yorkshire constituency. Parts of the constituency are also included in the Project Gigabit procurement for South Yorkshire. We plan to announce the details of that contract shortly.

There has been £2.8m of capital investment in the East Yorkshire parliamentary constituency between 2019/20 and 2023/24. This has provided the Environment Agency led project to refurbish Barmston Sea End Outfall and projects to reduce surface water flooding delivered by the East Riding of Yorkshire Council in Pocklington and Langtoft.

Hempholme and Wilfholme pumping stations have both been refurbished, with most funding secured from the Local Enterprise Partnership and Internal Drainage Board. Both pumping stations have played a significant part this winter in helping to remove flood water from farmland in the River Hull catchment.

The Environment Agency is also conducting a project to assess and evaluate investment need in the Upper and Middle Hull, focussing on existing flood risk management assets. In addition, East Riding of Yorkshire Council has developed a business case for a scheme to reduce flood risk in the Kelleythorpe area of Driffield and is conducting feasibility studies for two other villages in the constituency.

Defra published its Plan for Water which set out the importance of ensuring a clean and plentiful water supply in England. The Plan sets out our commitment to a twin track approach to improving water supply resilience, with action to reduce water company leaks alongside investing in new supply infrastructure.

Last year, regional water resources groups and water companies, consulted on their draft water resources plans. These statutory plans set out how each company will secure water supplies sustainably for at least the next 25 years. The draft water resources management plans contain proposals for multiple new water resources schemes by 2050, including nine new reservoirs.

Water companies are also using the £469 million made available by Ofwat in the current Price Review period (2020-2025) to investigate strategic water resources options, that are required to improve the resilience of England’s water supplies.  In addition, Ofwat recently announced that water companies are bringing forward £2.2 billion for new water infrastructure delivery, over the next two years, with £350 million worth of investment in water resilience schemes.

The Government also supports the Agricultural sector with its Water Management Grant, under the Farming Transformation Fund, for the construction of new on-farm reservoirs, helping to ensure farmers have access to water when they need it most.

The Easter Act 1928 would set the date for Easter to fall between the 9^th and 15^th April each year. The Easter Act 1928 remains on the Statute Book but has not been brought into force. To do so would require an Order in Council, with the approval of both Houses of Parliament. The Act also requires that, before the Order is made, ‘regard shall be had to any opinion officially expressed by any Church or other Christian Body.’ There is no indication that the churches support a move to a fixed date for Easter.

Details of central government contracts where the contract value is above £12,000 are published on Contracts Finder: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Search

As with all contracts, we continue to keep Fujitsu's conduct and commercial performance under review.