Written Statements

Wednesday 17th January 2024 Written Statements

Wednesday 17 January 2024

Critical Imports and Supply Chains Strategy

Wednesday 17th January 2024 Written Statements

[The Minister for Industry and Economic Security (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Today the Department for Business and Trade has published the UK’s first “Critical imports and supply chains strategy”. This meets the commitment made in the integrated review refresh in March 2023. The strategy can be accessed via the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-critical-imports-and-supply-chains-strategy

The commitment made in the integrated review refresh reflects the importance of ensuring the resilience of our critical supply chains for the UK’s economic prosperity, national security and essential services. These range from the semiconductors essential to modern electronics to the medicines that are used on a daily basis within the NHS. As the global economy changes, the UK is responding by using all its domestic, diplomatic, and trade levers to secure access to the most critical goods. This will safeguard and grow our economy both now and in the future. We are committed to ensuring that the UK remains a reliable and supportive place to do business, where firms can import the goods they need efficiently.

With the critical imports and supply chain strategy, this is the first time the Government have brought together existing work on supply chains, set out our priorities and outlined actions to enhance resilience further. The strategy aims to inform and reassure citizens and businesses in the UK that the Government are prioritising this work, while also informing international partners about the UK’s approach to critical imports and supply chain resilience. It highlights the benefits of free trade and the crucial role of businesses in managing their supply chains. The strategy builds on existing announcements made by the Government, such as the “Advanced Manufacturing Plan” and the “National Semiconductor Strategy”, to provide a cross-cutting approach to building resilience. The strategy has been informed by extensive engagement with businesses importing critical goods into the UK and operating in global supply chains.

The strategy sets out five priorities that will shape the Government’s ongoing work:

Making the UK Government a centre of excellence for supply chain analysis and risk assessment through building on our existing expertise to better understand the goods and the broader supply chain systems, including transport routes and infrastructure, that the UK needs now and in the future;

Removing critical import barriers to support the UK’s business-friendly environment, including through new work with business to identify and where appropriate address barriers in order to support the resilience of our critical supply chains;

Building the UK’s response to global supply chain shocks by continuing to refine and expand our capability to forecast and respond to external shocks to global supply chains, from extreme weather events to geopolitical incidents. This will include increasing the information available to businesses;

Ensuring the UK can adapt to long-term trends by developing the insights, policies and international partnerships needed to address long-term trends impacting supply chain resilience, including climate change, evolving geo-political dynamics and the growth of new industries and technologies; and

Expanding collaboration between Government, business and academia, including through the establishment of a new critical imports council.

We will publish a progress update in due course, setting out the steps that have been taken to deliver the strategy, and plans for further work.

[HCWS191]

Energy National Policy Statements

Wednesday 17th January 2024 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Claire Coutinho)]

I laid five energy national policy statements for parliamentary approval on 22 November 2023. I am therefore pleased to inform Parliament that I am today designating them as national policy statements under the provisions of section 5(1) of the Planning Act 2008, and laying copies before Parliament as required by section 5(9)(b) of the same Act. The statements are made under the Planning Act 2008, which applies to England and Wales.

This designation is an important landmark and marks significant progress in two vital areas of this country: new updated national policy statements support a stronger, fairer and more efficient planning system for significant national energy infrastructure; and they support our efforts to build an energy system that will meet our net zero objectives, and provide the country with greater energy security, helping the UK maintain energy supplies at affordable prices.

[HCWS193]

Women’s Health Strategy

Wednesday 17th January 2024 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Victoria Atkins)]

After a successful first year implementing the women’s health strategy for England, I am pleased to update on our priorities for 2024.

Improving care before, during and after pregnancy

We will continue to deliver NHS England’s three-year plan for maternity services and empower women with information on the improvements that they should expect and deserve during pregnancy and after giving birth.

We will work to prevent and improve support for women who have experienced physical and mental birth trauma. By March, new services to avoid tears during childbirth and to improve maternal mental health will be rolled out across England, alongside updated guidance for GPs.

We will improve post-natal contraception provision and awareness of hyperemesis gravidarum during pregnancy. We will also continue to support for women and their partners who have experienced pregnancy loss, including through the baby loss certificate service that will be available shortly.

Improving care for gynaecological conditions and menstrual problems

Guidance will be updated this year for gynaecological conditions such as endometriosis and we will work to improve women’s experiences of gynaecological procedures including hysteroscopy. Access to contraception will also be improved through Pharmacy First, which will play a vital role in managing menstrual problems.

The Office for National Statistics will carry out work to improve our understanding of endometriosis diagnosis times and the impact on women in the workforce.

Expanding women’s health hubs

We are investing £25 million in women’s health hubs to improve women’s access to care, improve health outcomes and reduce health disparities.

We are working closely with NHS England and the network of women’s health champions to support the establishment of women’s health hubs, and we expect all 42 local systems in England—each integrated care system—to have at least one hub operating this year.

Tackling disparities and improving support for vulnerable women

We will focus on improving support for patients and staff who are victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence. NHS trusts and local systems will review their policies, training and support systems for domestic abuse and sexual misconduct this year.

The new acquired brain injury strategy coming later this year will consider the needs of victims of domestic violence with acquired brain injuries. We will implement the recommendations in the NHS England and HM Prison and Probation Service joint national women’s prison health and social care review.

We will also work to reduce maternal disparities, given that data continues to show that black women are almost three times more likely to die during or shortly after pregnancy than white women. Women of Asian ethnic backgrounds are 1.67 times more likely to die than white women.

Boosting research on women’s health

Through the first ever National Institute for Health and Care Research—NIHR—challenge fund of its kind, we will provide £50 million to unite researchers, policy-makers, and women, to tackle maternity disparities. The NIHR will continue to encourage bids for better representation of women in research and more research into under-researched women’s health issues such as lobular breast cancer as well as conditions that affect women and men differently, such as heart attacks.

The NIHR recently published a statement of intent for developing policy and practice which sees sex differences fully accounted for in research.

Continuation of existing priorities

Since my the Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my hon. Friend the Member for Lewes (Maria Caulfield) wrote to parliamentarians in summer last year outlining the significant achievements made so far, we have made further progress in other areas:

We have published a tool to help people find local fertility commissioning policies in England. We have recently announced changes in the law to remove financial barriers to female same-sex couples accessing IVF, and will continue to work with NHS England to improve access to NHS-funded fertility treatment.

We launched our new women’s health area on the NHS website, a new HRT hub and for the first time new pages on conditions such as adenomvosis.

NHS England announced its aim to eliminate cervical cancer by 2040 by making it easier to get the lifesaving human papillomavirus—HPV—vaccination and increasing cervical screening uptake.

The NHS England Pharmacy Contraception Service relaunched to enable community pharmacies to initiate oral contraception. Almost 3,000 contractors have already signed up to the expanded service.

Between its launch on 1 April and 31 December 2023, 484,082 hormone replacement therapy prescription prepayment certificates were purchased, saving women millions of pounds in ongoing prescription charges.

NHS England will continue its work to improve menopause care by piloting new guidance for nurses, GPs and other staff in the midlands to better recognise and treat symptoms.

Helen Tomlinson, the Government’s Menopause Employment Champion, published a plan for the next six months in her role. The Government also launched online resources for employers.

In autumn we ran a reproductive health survey, which received 52,000 responses from women telling us about their experiences across all areas of reproductive health.

The upcoming major conditions strategy will consider the differences between men and women in conditions such as osteoporosis and dementia.

I am delighted to announce the reappointment of Professor Dame Lesley Regan as Women’s Health Ambassador for England for a further two years to December 2025. She will provide expert clinical leadership and support implementation of the strategy.

[HCWS192]