Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Abena Oppong-Asare and Liz Twist

Thursday 24th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Liz Twist (Blaydon and Consett) (Lab)]

16. What steps he is taking to strengthen emergency preparedness.

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Ms Abena Oppong-Asare)]

The Government are introducing a range of measures to strengthen our emergency preparedness. We hold regular cross-Government planning exercises for a range of scenarios. Later this year, we will undertake a pandemic response exercise, and we will also undertake a national test of our emergency alert system. Next week, my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster will open the new UK Resilience Academy, which will train over 4,000 people a year.

[Ms Oppong-Asare]

This is an issue that I recognise, and I reassure my hon. Friend that my colleagues in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology are working very closely with telecoms companies and Ofcom to ensure that consumers are protected throughout the public switched telephone network migration. As she mentioned, that will include provisions to protect access to emergency services during power outages.

[Liz Twist]

Local resilience forums such as Northumbria LRF and Durham and Darlington LRF, which cover my constituency, play a very important role in identifying potential risks and supporting our local communities. Can the Minister tell the House how the Government are working with these local forums, and how they will ensure that their insights feed into the Government’s planning and preparation for risks such as pandemics?

[Ms Oppong-Asare]

I thank my hon. Friend for her important question. The Government recognise the importance of local resilience forums and the role they play in boosting resilience in places and communities. I hope she feels reassured that I have met all local resilience forums across England to discuss their concerns, and I have also met businesses to talk about the importance of local resilience. We will continue to work closely with local resilience forums, including Northumbria LRF in her local area, to plan and prepare for a broad range of risks, including pandemics.

Finance (No. 2) Bill (Fourth sitting)

Debate between Abena Oppong-Asare and Liz Twist

Wednesday 5th January 2022 Public Bill Committees

[Abena Oppong-Asare]

I thank the Minister for her explanation of clause 82, which increases the rate of landfill tax in line with inflation. The clause is very straightforward, and we do not oppose it. However, since we are talking about a specifically environmental tax, I will take this opportunity to bring to the Minister’s attention the climate change tax policy road map published by the Chartered Institute of Taxation, which calls on the Government to set out how they plan to use the tax system to meet our net zero goal.

There are obviously several different taxes that affect the environment, some of which we have already discussed today, but there is a clear need to start thinking strategically about the role that the tax system will play in reaching our net zero goal. Of course, tax can play a number of roles in achieving net zero. It provides a source of revenue for the investment we desperately need—in renewable energy, for example—but it can also incentivise climate-friendly behaviour, whether for individuals or businesses, and I have met businesses that are quite keen to have a bit more direction on that, particularly from the Government.

It is not just me who is saying this: in a number of meetings I have had, quite a number of stakeholders have said that we need the Government to take a joined-up approach that links climate tax policy with wider policy objectives. Unfortunately, the recent Treasury net zero review said very little about this really important issue, so could the Minister set out whether the Treasury will publish a net zero strategy? Failing that, will she give us an indication of how the Treasury intends to use the tax code as part of our effort to achieve net zero?

[Liz Twist (Blaydon) (Lab)]

I speak in this debate as an MP whose constituency has been blighted by landfill, so of course landfill taxes are very welcome, and as my hon. Friend the Member for Erith and Thamesmead has just said, an increase in that tax is welcome as part of an environmental policy that—as she also said—needs to go much further in future. However, I want specifically to ask the Minister about enforcement of the requirement to collect and pay landfill tax after the experience in my constituency of a failed HMRC investigation lasting some six years, the unfortunately named Operation Nosedive. What will the Treasury do to ensure that enforcement action is robust and followed through to make this tax as effective as it can be?