Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the enforcement by the Gambling Commission of legislation on preventing unlicensed online gambling operators from being advertised by Premier League football clubs.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Gambling Commission has been clear that sports organisations must diligently and continuously ensure that they are not advertising illegal gambling. Under current rules, sports organisations who engage in sponsoring and advertising arrangements with unlicensed gambling operators are at serious risk of committing the offence of advertising unlawful gambling under Section 330 of the Gambling Act 2005. The Commission has warned relevant club officials that they may be liable to prosecution and, if convicted, face a fine, imprisonment or both if they promote unlicensed gambling businesses that transact with consumers in Great Britain. Sports organisations engaging in such arrangements with an unlicensed brand must ensure that online gambling activity for that unlicensed brand is blocked and inaccessible to consumers in Great Britain.
In such instances, the Commission will seek assurance from clubs that they have carried out due diligence on their gambling partners and that consumers in Great Britain cannot transact with the unlicensed websites. The Commission will also take steps to independently verify effective blocking measures are in place.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has plans to reintroduce a safeguarding database for children.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Keeping children safe is a priority for this government. Through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, the department is taking a range of steps to improve safeguarding. We are introducing a new information sharing duty, making provision for a Single Unique Identifier, strengthening the role of education in local safeguarding arrangements and introducing multi-agency child protection teams.
There are presently no plans to re-introduce a national safeguarding database for children.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to take steps to allow childminders to provide funded places to related children who do not live with them.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Childminders are an important part of the early education sector. They provide flexible and affordable care which can be tailored to the specific needs of parents and children.
Primary legislation does not permit funding care that is provided by a relative under the early years entitlements. Successive governments have taken this same approach to avoid creating an incentive for adults to register to become childminders and being paid to look after related children that they are already looking after on an informal basis. For this reason, the department currently has no plans to change this long-standing position. A local authority can choose to fund a childminder providing childcare for a related child. However, this would have to be from local authority funds that are independent of the dedicated schools grant.
Although childminders cannot receive entitlements funding for related children, flexibilities within staff to child ratios can be used to allow childminders who are caring for related children to avoid limiting the income they can earn. This clarification, which aims to provide more flexibility and remove burdens for childminders while maintaining quality and safety standards, is part of our wider changes to the early years foundation stage.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of adjusting the annual limits for VCT investee companies alongside inflation.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Venture Capital Trust (VCT) Scheme was evaluated in 2022, and these evaluations were published on gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-venture-capital-schemes.
The evaluations found that the schemes were well targeted to address the market failure which makes it difficult for early-stage, high-risk companies to secure the investment they need.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of changing the UK VCT rules on the age limit for qualifying companies in line with EU regulations.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Venture Capital Trust (VCT) Scheme was evaluated in 2022, and these evaluations were published on gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-venture-capital-schemes.
The evaluations found that the schemes were well targeted to address the market failure which makes it difficult for early-stage, high-risk companies to secure the investment they need.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to protect grouse and their habitats.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There are two native species of grouse in England, red and black grouse. Black grouse are of conservation concern because of a long-term decline in their numbers due to a combination of factors including predation, climate change and changes in agricultural practices.
As with all wild birds, red and black grouse are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981. The Game Act, 1831 applies a close season to both species to ensure hunting is sustainable. However, there is a long-standing voluntary moratorium on the hunting of black grouse due to their long-term decline.
Typical habitat for both species is peatland, heathland and moorland. We are committed to protecting these nature-rich habitats through promoting sustainable land management and restoration practices. These habitats are included in the Government commitment to deliver our legally binding biodiversity target to restore or create more than 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat by 2042. The Government’s Nature for Climate Fund is also enabling peatland restoration and native woodland planting which will provide benefits for both species of grouse.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department has plans to review the processes for recording tracking histories at Royal Mail's Heathrow distribution centre.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Royal Mail is an independent business and therefore concerns about operational matters should be directed to its management.
The government does not have a role in Royal Mail’s commercial or operational decisions, including its processes for recording tracking histories at its Heathrow distribution centre.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure food allergy labels are visible and legible; and whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a minimum type size.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK maintains high standards on the information that is provided on food labels, whether that be mandatory or voluntary, so that consumers can have confidence in the food that they buy.
The availability and accessibility of essential food information to all consumers is vitally important. It is already a requirement that food information must be easily visible, clearly legible, and where appropriate indelible, in addition to there being a required minimum font size for mandatory information.
Additionally, if a prepacked or prepacked for direct sale food contains one of the 14 major allergens as an ingredient then this must be emphasised in the ingredients list so that it clearly stands out from the other ingredients.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has considered the introduction of an official ID scheme for (a) disabled people and (b) their carers.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
While some disabled people may welcome a card that acts as a proof of disability, we are aware that some disabled people would not wish to carry a card which confirms their impairment. Other people who may meet the criteria for the Equality Act 2010 definition of disability do not identify as disabled, although they may require reasonable adjustments.
The Equality Act 2010 places a duty on businesses and service providers to make reasonable adjustments to improve disabled people’s access to goods and services, so they are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled people. This reasonable adjustment duty is an anticipatory duty, meaning that those who provide goods, facilities and services to members of the public are expected to anticipate the reasonable adjustments that disabled customers may require.
There are a number of optional schemes and cards in the UK that have been created to meet particular needs and which people may use if they wish. These include the Hidden Disability Sunflower Scheme which discreetly identifies where additional support may be needed and is gaining widespread recognition, and Nimbus Disability’s Access Card which can help when communicating with a business about the types of support or reasonable adjustments that might be needed to access their services.
Introducing an ID scheme for carers could prove restrictive. A disabled person may have more than one carer or may be accompanied by different people on different occasions.
There are therefore no plans to introduce an ID scheme for disabled people or their carers at this time.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of raising taxation on gambling operators.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Gambling Duties raised £3.5 billion in revenue in 2023-24.
As with all taxes, the Government keeps the gambling duty system under review during its Budget process.