Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information his Department holds on how many trees have been planted in Rother Valley constituency in the last (a) year, (b) five years and (c) decade.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
I would refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave the hon. Member for Wellingborough on 22 May 2024 to question 26823.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the vaccine damage payment scheme at assessing (a) claims related to covid-19 vaccines and (b) other claims.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
All routine policy, including the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS), is reviewed on a regular basis. My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care is currently looking into aspects of the scheme, following recent meetings with interested stakeholders.
Separately, work is underway with the scheme’s administrator, the NHS Business Service Authority, to review processes and make administrative changes, to improve the scheme within the current legislative framework. Formal consideration of whether any reforms to the VDPS are necessary will form part of Module 4 of the COVID-19 Inquiry, chaired by the Rt Hon Baroness Heather Carol Hallett DBE.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will require a review of the effectiveness of the vaccine damage payment scheme.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
All routine policy, including the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS), is reviewed on a regular basis. My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care is currently looking into aspects of the scheme, following recent meetings with interested stakeholders.
Separately, work is underway with the scheme’s administrator, the NHS Business Service Authority, to review processes and make administrative changes, to improve the scheme within the current legislative framework. Formal consideration of whether any reforms to the VDPS are necessary will form part of Module 4 of the COVID-19 Inquiry, chaired by the Rt Hon Baroness Heather Carol Hallett DBE.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has had recent discussions with Cabinet colleagues on the operation of the vaccine damage payment scheme.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care meets regularly with other Cabinet colleagues to discuss a variety of issues, including vaccines.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps she is taking to help increase investment in green technologies.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The UK has made tremendous progress securing investment into green technologies. Recent figures indicate that the UK saw £60bn of investment in 2023.
Government continues to bring forward targeted funding, regulation and policy to drive investment – such as confirming the funding boost for our Contracts for Difference scheme, publishing our CCUS vision, and our recent announcement of support for advanced nuclear fuel.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an estimate of the annual cost to the NHS of pipe smoking.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Tobacco is responsible for approximately 80,000 deaths a year in the United Kingdom, and causes approximately one in four UK cancer deaths. It also costs our country £21.8 billion a year and puts a huge burden on the National Health Service. Latest estimates from Action on Smoking and Health put the cost of smoking to the NHS and social care at £3 billion a year.
All smoked tobacco is extremely harmful, including pipe smoking. Smoking is the main driver for conditions such as lung cancer and severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and is a major factor for others such as premature cardiovascular disease.
Data from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities Smoking Profile showed that in 2019/20 there were an estimated 448,031 smoking attributable hospital admissions, but we cannot differentiate by the type of tobacco. As such, the Department does not hold data on the annual costs to the NHS of pipe smoking, nor data on the number of hospital admissions for issues related to pipe smoking in the last 12 months, five years, or 20 years.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an estimate of the number of hospital admissions for issues related to pipe smoking in the last (a) 12 months, (b) five years and (c) 20 years.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Tobacco is responsible for approximately 80,000 deaths a year in the United Kingdom, and causes approximately one in four UK cancer deaths. It also costs our country £21.8 billion a year and puts a huge burden on the National Health Service. Latest estimates from Action on Smoking and Health put the cost of smoking to the NHS and social care at £3 billion a year.
All smoked tobacco is extremely harmful, including pipe smoking. Smoking is the main driver for conditions such as lung cancer and severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and is a major factor for others such as premature cardiovascular disease.
Data from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities Smoking Profile showed that in 2019/20 there were an estimated 448,031 smoking attributable hospital admissions, but we cannot differentiate by the type of tobacco. As such, the Department does not hold data on the annual costs to the NHS of pipe smoking, nor data on the number of hospital admissions for issues related to pipe smoking in the last 12 months, five years, or 20 years.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to raise awareness of legal changes requiring the microchipping of cats by 10 June 2024.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We have worked closely with animal welfare and veterinary stakeholders to develop and implement a co-ordinated communication strategy to raise awareness that owned cats over the age of 20 weeks will be required to be microchipped by 10 June this year. The strategy has included press releases and a visible social media campaign.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an estimate of the number of hospital admissions for issues related to cigar smoking in the last (a) 12 months, (b) five years and (c) 20 years.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Smoking is responsible for approximately 80,000 deaths a year in the United Kingdom, and causes around one in four UK cancer deaths. It also costs our country £21.8 billion a year, and puts a huge burden on the National Health Service. The latest estimates from Action on Smoking and Health put the cost of smoking to the NHS at £1.9 billion a year.
All tobacco products are harmful. Tobacco smoke from cigars leads to the same types of diseases as cigarette smoke. Research has shown that using smokeless tobacco raises the risk of both mouth and oesophageal cancer. Data from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ Smoking Profile showed that in 2019/20 there were an estimated 448,031 smoking attributable hospital admissions, but we cannot differentiate by the type of tobacco.
As such, the Department does not hold data on the annual costs to the NHS of cigar smoking and snuff taking, nor data on the number of hospital admissions for issues related to cigar smoking or snuff taking in the last 12 months, five years, or 20 years.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an estimate of the number of hospital admissions for issues related to the taking of snuff in the last (a) 12 months, (b) five years and (c) 20 years.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Smoking is responsible for approximately 80,000 deaths a year in the United Kingdom, and causes around one in four UK cancer deaths. It also costs our country £21.8 billion a year, and puts a huge burden on the National Health Service. The latest estimates from Action on Smoking and Health put the cost of smoking to the NHS at £1.9 billion a year.
All tobacco products are harmful. Tobacco smoke from cigars leads to the same types of diseases as cigarette smoke. Research has shown that using smokeless tobacco raises the risk of both mouth and oesophageal cancer. Data from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ Smoking Profile showed that in 2019/20 there were an estimated 448,031 smoking attributable hospital admissions, but we cannot differentiate by the type of tobacco.
As such, the Department does not hold data on the annual costs to the NHS of cigar smoking and snuff taking, nor data on the number of hospital admissions for issues related to cigar smoking or snuff taking in the last 12 months, five years, or 20 years.