Mims Davies MP: written questions 2025
147 published records · newest first.
Written questions
Special Educational Needs: FinanceDepartment for EducationTabled 22 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 69908More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to take steps to help reduce regional differences in SEND funding.
Answer: The government is providing an increase of £1 billion for high needs budgets in England in the 2025/26 financial year. This brings total high needs funding for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to over £12 bi...
Answered 3 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordSpecial Educational Needs: West SussexDepartment for EducationTabled 22 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 69907More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the SEND funding allocation system for children in West Sussex.
Answer: The government is providing an increase of £1 billion for high needs budgets in England in the 2025/26 financial year. This brings total high needs funding for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to over £12 bi...
Answered 3 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordSlaughterhouses: Small BusinessesDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 22 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 69906More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of providing long term funding through (a) grants and (b) discounts to small abattoirs.
Answer: Defra recognises the vital role smaller abattoirs play in supporting local livestock producers and maintaining a resilient and competitive food supply chain. We continue to work to simplify and rationalise our grant funding from 2026 onwards following the...
Answered 2 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordFood: SussexDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 22 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 69905More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps has he taken to reduce regulations on (a) small-scale abattoirs and (b) other rural food producers in Sussex.
Answer: Defra is working closely with industry stakeholders and the Food Standards Agency to maintain high standards of public and animal health while identifying opportunities to ease regulatory and administrative burdens on small-scale abattoirs and rural food ...
Answered 2 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordSlaughterhouses: Small BusinessesDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 22 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 69904More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help expand the network of small abattoirs in (a) the South East and (b) England.
Answer: England benefits from an established and resilient meat processing sector which continues to deliver high-quality products, supporting food supply and food security. The Government has full confidence this will continue. While the Government does not inte...
Answered 2 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordSlaughterhouses: Small BusinessesDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 22 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 69903More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support small abattoirs.
Answer: Defra recognises the vital role smaller 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 Grou...
Answered 1 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordSlaughterhouses: InspectionsDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled 22 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 69902More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of Food Standards Agency (a) inspection charges and (b) regulations on small abattoirs.
Answer: The Food Standards Agency (FSA) conducts and charges for official controls, namely inspections, which help ensure that food hygiene and animal welfare standards are met in accordance with a legal framework, which has been in place for many years. The cont...
Answered 4 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordSlaughterhouses: Small BusinessesDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 22 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 69901More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the closure of small abattoirs on food (a) safety and (b) security.
Answer: Ensuring the safety of food that enters the supply chain is of vital importance to the Government. Likewise, the Government considers food security a matter of national security and is committed to maintaining a resilient and diverse food supply chain. Th...
Answered 2 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordFarms: Inheritance TaxTreasuryTabled 22 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 69900More
Question: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of an independent review of inheritance tax changes for family farms.
Answer: Ministers and officials from multiple Government departments have had several meetings with organisations on this matter since Autumn Budget 2024. After listening, the Government believes the approach set out is an appropriate one. The Government believes...
Answered 4 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordFarms: Inheritance TaxTreasuryTabled 22 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 69899More
Question: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of proposed inheritance tax changes to family farms on (a) rural communities and (b) East Grinstead and Uckfield constituency.
Answer: The Government believes its reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief from 6 April 2026 get the balance right between supporting farms and businesses, and fixing the public finances. The reforms reduce the inheritance tax advant...
Answered 4 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordGeneral Practitioners: FraudDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled 21 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 69411More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help prevent fraud by nationwide GP chains.
Answer: The Government takes fraud against the National Health Service extremely seriously and we will use every available tool to bring fraudsters to account. A comprehensive three-year Counter Fraud Strategy is in place and a Fraud Risk Assessment has been unde...
Answered 1 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordUK Border Force: Seasonal WorkersHome OfficeTabled 21 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 69400More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many officers were contracted in the seasonal workforce within Border Force in 2024.
Answer: I refer the Hon Member to the answer I gave on 23 July to Question 68251.
Answered 5 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordGeneral Practitioners: AuditsDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled 21 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 69380More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to conduct regular financial audits of GP practices that are part of national chains on an (a) national and (b) local individual surgery basis.
Answer: It is not the responsibility of the Department or NHS England to undertake financial audits of general practices (GPs). GPs are private businesses that are commissioned by integrated care boards to provide general medical services via a National Health Se...
Answered 2 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordGeneral Practitioners: Integrated Care BoardsDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled 21 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 69379More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether (a) his Department and (b) ICBs have issued guidance to larger GP practices with multiple sites across several ICB areas.
Answer: Integrated care boards (ICBs), as commissioners of primary medical services, are responsible for the quality, safety, and performance of services delivered by providers within their areas. Large general practitioner (GP) practices spanning multiple commis...
Answered 25 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordGeneral Practitioners: TravelDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled 21 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 69378More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has issued guidance on the maximum distance that a patient should travel to see their registered GP.
Answer: As part of the arrangements for the provision of primary medical services, general practices (GPs) are required to agree an area within which they will accept patients onto their list. This ensures there is a sufficient distribution of GPs for all patient...
Answered 1 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordUK Border Force: Seasonal WorkersHome OfficeTabled 21 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 69377More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many former seasonal workforce officers were offered permanent positions after their contacts ended prior to 2024; and how many vacancies there were for them in 2024.
Answer: I refer the Hon Member to the answer I gave on 23 July to PQ UIN 68079.
Answered 5 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordImmigration Controls: StandardsHome OfficeTabled 21 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 69376More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on how many occasions waiting time targets were exceeded at major points of entry in 2024.
Answer: The specific data requested is not available in an accessible format but below are the relevant statistics taken from Border Force’s transparency data.Of the 832,739 queue samples measured across the UK in 2024, 97.55% of queues were within Border Force’s...
Answered 5 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordUK Border Force: VacanciesHome OfficeTabled 21 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 69375More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the (a) travel and (b) other costs were of back filling shortfalls in Border Force staff in 2024; and how many (i) posts and (ii) hours of time were backfilled.
Answer: There was no shortfall in Border Force staffing against its budgeted headcount in 2024; as such, there were no additional travel nor other costs incurred specifically for backfilling staff, and no posts nor hours required backfilling.Border Force operates...
Answered 5 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordUK Border Force: Seasonal WorkersHome OfficeTabled 21 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 69374More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the (a) sickness and (b) staff retention rates were of the seasonal workforce in Border force in 2024.
Answer: Data on (a) sickness rates for this cohort is not centrally held by the Home Office.As regards (b) retention, at the start of 2024, Home Office was authorised by the Civil Service Commission to recruit on an exceptional basis up to 1000 SWF staff to meet ...
Answered 5 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordUK Border Force: Seasonal WorkersHome OfficeTabled 21 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 69373More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the budget was for the seasonal workforce for Border Force in 2024.
Answer: The budget for Border Force’s Seasonal Workforce was £9.424m for calendar year 2024.
Answered 5 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordRailways: WalesWales OfficeTabled 21 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 69340More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, pursuant to her oral answer in response to the question from the hon. Member for Lichfield of 16 July 2025, Official Report, Column 282, what the evidential basis is for her statement on historic underfunding.
Answer: I regret that the Hon. Member seems to refuse to accept or acknowledge the historic underfunding. When I gave evidence to the Welsh Affairs Committee in January, there was widespread agreement that this was the case and many others have expressed similar ...
Answered 1 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordRailways: WalesWales OfficeTabled 21 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 69339More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, pursuant to her oral answer in response to the question from the hon. Member for Lichfield of 16 July 2025, Official Report, Column 282, over what period that £445 million covers; and what the allocated spending is
Answer: Following the Spending Review, the UK Government is investing at least £445m into Welsh rail infrastructure upgrades, with the vast majority of this funding to be spent within the Spending Review period.This investment will mean new stations and more and ...
Answered 2 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordRailways: WalesDepartment for TransportTabled 2 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 64555More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding was (a) allocated and (b) spent on railways in Wales between 2010 and 2024 by fiscal period.
Answer: The table below shows the UK Government funded expenditure on operations, maintenance, renewal and enhancement of railways in Wales for each financial year, noting that we do not have data for the financial year 2010/2011. Financial Year11/1212/1313/1414/...
Answered 8 Jul 2025
Original Parliament recordOxted Line: ElectrificationDepartment for TransportTabled 6 Jun 2025AnsweredUIN 58039More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the electrification of the train line between Uckfield and Hurst Green on economic growth in Sussex.
Answer: A Strategic Outline Business Case was developed by Network Rail in 2021 which considered the potential benefits of electrifying the line between Hurst Green and Uckfield. This assessment concluded that the scheme would have positive impacts on train serv...
Answered 16 Jun 2025
Original Parliament recordOxted Line: ElectrificationDepartment for TransportTabled 6 Jun 2025AnsweredUIN 58038More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the electrification of the train line between Uckfield and Hurst Green on train reliability.
Answer: A Strategic Outline Business Case was developed by Network Rail in 2021 which considered the potential benefits of electrifying the line between Hurst Green and Uckfield. This assessment concluded that the scheme would have positive impacts on train servi...
Answered 16 Jun 2025
Original Parliament record
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