Tim Farron MP: written questions
254 published records · newest first.
Written questions
Gabapentin: Side EffectsDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled 7 Jan 2026AnsweredUIN 103736More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has been made of the potential impact of prolonged use of Gabapentin on long-term neurological risks, including dementia and brain damage.
Answer: Gabapentin is authorised to treat epilepsy and peripheral neuropathic pain, or nerve pain. The known side effects of gabapentin are outlined in the product information, the Summary of Product Characteristics (SPC) for healthcare professionals, and the Pat...
Answered 13 Jan 2026
Original Parliament recordAgriculture: EmploymentDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 7 Jan 2026AnsweredUIN 103735More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the number of people leaving the agricultural sector.
Answer: Defra produces statistical estimates of the number of people working on commercial [see a below] agricultural holdings in England. Defra does not monitor the numbers leaving and entering the sector separately, therefore estimates show the net change in th...
Answered 14 Jan 2026
Original Parliament recordAgriculture: Flood ControlDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 7 Jan 2026AnsweredUIN 103734More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of expanding flooding support eligibility for farmers.
Answer: The Government is funding environmental land management (ELM) schemes, which include measures to support farmers with managing flood risks or investing in natural flood management. The Government has committed to investing £11.8 billion in the farming bud...
Answered 15 Jan 2026
Original Parliament recordAgriculture: Flood ControlDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 7 Jan 2026AnsweredUIN 103733More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what funding farmers are offered for flood management.
Answer: The Government is funding environmental land management (ELM) schemes, which include measures to support farmers with managing flood risks or investing in natural flood management. The Government has committed to investing £11.8 billion in the farming bud...
Answered 15 Jan 2026
Original Parliament recordFlood Control: FinanceDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 7 Jan 2026AnsweredUIN 103732More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of the Department's budget is allocated to work on flood defences and mitigation.
Answer: Delivering on the Plan for Change, this government is investing at least £10.5 billion until 2036 to construct new flood schemes and repair existing defences, protecting communities from the devastating impacts of climate change. The proportion of Defra G...
Answered 14 Jan 2026
Original Parliament recordAgriculture: FloodsDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 7 Jan 2026AnsweredUIN 103731More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the flooding risk to farms; and what percentage of farms are at high flood risk.
Answer: Our new national flood risk assessment (NaFRA) shows that of the 85,000 square kilometres of agricultural land in England, over 11,000 square kilometres is in areas at risk of flooding from rivers and sea.
Answered 15 Jan 2026
Original Parliament recordWater SupplyDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 7 Jan 2026AnsweredUIN 103730More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what contingency plans are in place for periods of water shortage and supply outages.
Answer: In England and Wales, The Security and Emergency Measures Direction 2022 (SEMD) is the main legislative framework specific to water companies for emergency planning. It requires water companies to ensure continuation of their water distribution functions ...
Answered 14 Jan 2026
Original Parliament recordWater SupplyDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 7 Jan 2026AnsweredUIN 103729More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Department is taking to help tackle water scarcity.
Answer: The Government recognises the importance of having enough water through the Environment Improvement Plan – ‘Goal 3: Water - We will ensure English waters are clean, resilient and plentiful.’ Within this plan, there are stretching targets to reduce demand ...
Answered 14 Jan 2026
Original Parliament recordWater Supply: InfrastructureDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 7 Jan 2026AnsweredUIN 103728More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment the Department has made of the adequacy of water infrastructure investment in each of the last five years.
Answer: There has been historic underinvestment in the water industry. Investment has not kept pace with the challenges of an ageing infrastructure system, a rapidly growing population, and climate change. We have already announced that we will create a powerful ...
Answered 20 Jan 2026
Original Parliament recordWater SupplyDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 7 Jan 2026AnsweredUIN 103727More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many water outage incidents have occurred in each of the last five years.
Answer: Water companies are Category Two Responders under the Civil Contingencies Act (2004) and have duties to plan for emergencies, including water outage incidents. In England, the Security and Emergency Measures Direction 2022 (SEMD) is the main legislative f...
Answered 14 Jan 2026
Original Parliament recordWater TreatmentDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 7 Jan 2026AnsweredUIN 103726More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the levels of resilience of water treatment works.
Answer: Ofwat has a legislative duty to further the resilience of water companies’ water supply and wastewater systems to enable them to meet long-term need. The Government is preparing to respond to the recommendations of the Independent Water Commission, includ...
Answered 14 Jan 2026
Original Parliament recordAir Pollution: DeathDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled 6 Jan 2026AnsweredUIN 103232More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many attributable deaths there were from fine particulate matter, PM2.5, were there in (a) East Midlands, (b) East of England, (c) Greater London, (d) North East, (e) North West, (f) South East
Answer: The number of deaths attributable to fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) is not annually calculated for each region. The current estimate of attributable deaths in the United Kingdom for 2019 was 29,000 to 43,000 deaths for adults aged 30 years old and...
Answered 20 Jan 2026
Original Parliament recordPublic HealthDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled 6 Jan 2026AnsweredUIN 103231More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 10 May 2023 to Question 183643 on Public Health, what methodologies were used to estimate the costs to the NHS for each of the five risk factors specified.
Answer: The applicable methodologies for the National Health Service cost attributed to each of the risk factors outlined are explained in the following reports.The estimated air pollution related costs to the NHS can be found in the Public Health England report ...
Answered 15 Jan 2026
Original Parliament recordSmoking: DeathDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled 6 Jan 2026AnsweredUIN 103230More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people died from smoking in England in each year since 2021.
Answer: The latest estimates for smoking-attributable mortality in England are for the period 2017 to 2019. The Smoking Profile, produced by the Department, reports 191,903 smoking-attributable deaths of people aged 35 years old and over in the period 2017 to 201...
Answered 15 Jan 2026
Original Parliament recordAir Pollution: Pollution ControlDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled 6 Jan 2026AnsweredUIN 103229More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with ‘Heating, ventilation and air conditioning’ (HVAC) professionals and facilities managers to understand how they reduce air pollution in dwellings and no
Answer: The Department and the UK Health Security Agency engage with a range of stakeholders on ways to reduce the health impacts of both indoor and outdoor air pollution.This includes engagement by officials with relevant bodies in the United Kingdom and interna...
Answered 14 Jan 2026
Original Parliament recordHealth Services: TechnologyDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled 6 Jan 2026AnsweredUIN 103228More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he will update the Health and Technical Memorandum 03-01 for the latest technical standards.
Answer: Published guidance on ventilation in healthcare settings includes the Health Technical Memorandum 03-01: Specialised ventilation for healthcare premises. It gives comprehensive advice and guidance on the legal requirements, design implications, maintenanc...
Answered 15 Jan 2026
Original Parliament recordPublic HealthDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled 6 Jan 2026AnsweredUIN 103227More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which public health factors created the 10 largest direct cost impacts on the NHS in 2024; and how much the NHS spent in 2024 on tackling the health impacts of the following public health factors:
Answer: Global Burden of Disease data considers the top ten public health factors in the United Kingdom in 2023 in order of importance to be: tobacco, high body mass index, dietary risks, high fasting plasma glucose, high blood pressure, high alcohol use, high ch...
Answered 15 Jan 2026
Original Parliament recordSchools: Air PollutionDepartment for EducationTabled 6 Jan 2026AnsweredUIN 103226More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she will update guidance titled ‘BB101: Ventilation, thermal comfort and indoor air quality 2018’ for the latest available technical standards.
Answer: All new department-delivered schools are designed and constructed to the department’s own school building standards. These standards include ventilation, thermal comfort and air quality and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/emp...
Answered 13 Jan 2026
Original Parliament recordBiofuels: Carbon EmissionsDepartment for Energy Security and Net ZeroTabled 6 Jan 2026AnsweredUIN 103225More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what progress his Department has made in implementing the advice in Table 1 on numbered page 19 of the Climate Change Committee’s report titled ‘Biomass in a low carbon economy’ (November 201
Answer: The department’s schemes support biomass installations only in rural areas and if additional eligibility criteria are met. New ecodesign standards setting higher minimum efficiency standards for solid fuel space heaters, including wood burning stoves, hav...
Answered 14 Jan 2026
Original Parliament recordAir PollutionDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 6 Jan 2026AnsweredUIN 103224More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, How many people in each of the following regions are expected to be exposed to concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exceeding each of (a) 5 micrograms per cubic metre (ug/
Answer: Defra does not publish air quality data in the form requested. The recently published Environmental Improvement Plan set out a target to reduce average exposure to PM2.5 in England by 30% by 2030 compared to the 2018 value. The emphasis of this approach i...
Answered 13 Jan 2026
Original Parliament recordNitrogen Dioxide: Pollution ControlDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 6 Jan 2026AnsweredUIN 103223More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether any hotspots in zones other than the five zones identified in the Compliance Assessment Summary 2024 exceeded the nitrogen dioxide annual limit value in calendar 2024.
Answer: The localised hotspots identified through Defra’s national modelling and monitoring networks are published annually on UK Air (https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/) as part of the national compliance assessment under the Air Quality Standards Regulations 2010. Lo...
Answered 13 Jan 2026
Original Parliament recordNitrogen Dioxide: Pollution ControlDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 6 Jan 2026AnsweredUIN 103222More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which areas in the following zones her Department assesses may delay compliance with the nitrogen dioxide annual limit value beyond 2024 and until when in (i) West Midlands Urban Area;
Answer: The results of the UK’s air quality assessment for 2024 are published online on the UK-Air website (https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/). Projections of future compliance for locations in exceedance of the nitrogen dioxide annual mean limit value in 2024 are bei...
Answered 13 Jan 2026
Original Parliament recordSolid Fuels: Air PollutionDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 6 Jan 2026AnsweredUIN 103221More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Domestic Solid Fuel Regulations 2020.
Answer: In November 2025, we published the Post Implementation Review of the Air Quality (Domestic Solid Fuels Standards) (England) Regulations 2020, which assesses the effectiveness of the Regulations. Data suggest that the Regulations have led to consumers movi...
Answered 13 Jan 2026
Original Parliament recordSmoke and Chimney GasesDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 6 Jan 2026AnsweredUIN 103220More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department provides guidance on whether premises are permitted to emit visible smoke in England.
Answer: We provide guidance for local authorities on enforcement of SCAs - Smoke control area enforcement by local authorities in England and to the public to help them understand the requirements within SCAs – Smoke control areas: the rules.
Answered 13 Jan 2026
Original Parliament recordAir Pollution: Pollution ControlDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 6 Jan 2026AnsweredUIN 103219More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Clean Air Act 1956, the Clean Air Act 1968 and the Clean Air Act 1993.
Answer: The Clean Air Act is kept under continuous review to ensure it remains fit for purpose. A number of amendments have been made since its introduction in 1956. The most recent changes were introduced under the Environment Act 2021, which included the streng...
Answered 13 Jan 2026
Original Parliament record
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