Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, whether he received legal advice on the European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill.
Answered by Hilary Benn - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
I refer the Honourable Member to the reply I provided to the question he previously tabled on this subject and published on 17 December 2024 (UIN 18801).
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to help improve road safety for cyclists; and what financial support she has provided for programmes delivered by The Bikeability Trust since July 2024.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
In 2022, Active Travel England was established as an executive agency to the Department for Transport, with the strategic aim of enabling people to walk, wheel and cycle and protecting them when they do by reducing road danger through the creation of safe infrastructure. The agency has been supporting the development of designs and the assessment of design quality through the use of recently published active travel design assistance and scheme review tools. Officials use these tools for ongoing design assurance and to identify critical safety issues that are associated with an increased risk of collisions for people walking, wheeling, or cycling, and work with local authorities to remove or mitigate them.
To further improve road safety for cyclists, we are investing up to £30 million this year to scale up Bikeability training to over 500,000 more children, and will announce further funding for Bikeability training in the coming months.
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he is taking steps to increase the use of nature-based solutions to tackle climate change.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra has a vital role to play to ensure nature-based solutions are a core part of tackling climate change and averting its impacts. Nature-based solutions deliver multiple benefits for climate, biodiversity and people, and can therefore play a critical role in helping deliver the Government's priorities, such as ensuring nature recovery. Defra’s Secretary of State has made nature recovery one of the five top priorities for the Department.
This Government is committed to achieving its tree planting targets and is committed to the legal target to plant 16.5% tree cover by 2050. We will also restore hundreds of thousands of hectares of peatland and we are developing delivery mechanisms for peatland restoration.
Defra has secured a farm support budget of £2.4 billion for the next financial year. This means we can maintain the momentum of our Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes, which will rise to the highest funding levels ever by 2025/26. Through this investment, we are helping to secure a healthy and resilient future for English farming and restore our natural landscapes for generations to come whilst continuing to support farmers and landowners in their low-carbon, nature friendly practices.
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment the Department has made of the adequacy of public toilet provision; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of appointing a public toilet commissioner to ensure (a) consistent standards and (b) accessibility for all communities.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local authorities are best placed to understand local priorities, including on the important issue of provision of public toilets whether they are operated by local councils directly or through community schemes.
As set out in the Local government finance policy statement 2025 to 2026 published on 28 November, we are taking action to address the significant challenges councils face, including through the first multi-year funding settlement for local government in 10 years and reducing the number of funding pots so that councils have more certainty and flexibility to judge local priorities, to meet the needs of local people, and to decide how best to deliver on our national priorities.
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to (a) improve support, (b) ensure equitable access to specialist services and (c) promote workplace adjustments for people living with migraine; and what plans he has to work with local health boards to (i) review the level of need for migraine-specific services and (ii) ensure appropriate provision.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As health is a devolved matter, no plans have been made to work with local health boards to review the level of need for migraine-specific services and ensure appropriate provision. In England, NHS England is responsible for allocating funding to integrated care boards (ICBs), which are, in turn, responsible for commissioning specialist migraine services that meet the needs of their populations, subject to local prioritisation and funding.
The process of commissioning services should take into account best practice guidance, such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guidance on the diagnosis and management of headaches in over 12-year-olds, which was updated in December 2021. The NICE guideline provides recommendations on principles of care for people with migraines, which may include a multidisciplinary approach to care, based on clinical need, and involving access to a range of health professionals, including specialist neurology nurses, neurologists, and pain management specialists. Whilst NICE guidelines are not mandatory, the Government expects the healthcare system to take them fully into account when designing services.
Occupational health as advisory support has a broad remit. It plays an important role in supporting employers to maintain and promote employee health and wellbeing through assessments of fitness for work, advice about reasonable adjustments, work ability or return to work plans, and signposting to treatment for specific conditions such as migraines.
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that planned reforms to the disability benefit system provide adequate (a) security and (b) support for (i) seriously ill and (ii) disabled people while enabling those who are able to work to access appropriate opportunities.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This government believes there is a strong case to change the system of health and disability benefits across Great Britain so that it better enables people to enter and remain in work, and to respond to the complex and fluctuating nature of the health conditions many people live with. The system must also work to reduce poverty for disabled people and those with health conditions and support disabled people to live independently.
We want to engage with disabled people, and others with expertise and experience on these issues, to consider how to address these challenges and build a better system. We will be working to develop proposals for reform in the months ahead and will set them out for consultation and engagement in a Green Paper in spring 2025. This government is committed to putting the views and voices of disabled people at the heart of all that we do, so we will consult on these proposals with disabled people and representative organisations.
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, if he will published the legal advice he received on the European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill.
Answered by Hilary Benn - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Government set out its position on the Bill during its Second Reading on 6 December 2024. Legal advice provided to the Government is privileged.
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the EU General Product Safety Regulations on (a) businesses and (b) consumers in (i) Northern Ireland and (ii) Great Britain; and what steps he is taking to mitigate that potential impact.
Answered by Hilary Benn - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The updated General Product Safety Regulations largely formalises how businesses are already operating in the UK and the measures are therefore likely to have in practice a limited impact overall. Where businesses need to make changes, many will be adapting anyway to be compliant with the new Regulation to continue trading with the EU.
In addition to the guidance published on 3 December, the Government is continuing to engage with businesses to ensure the smooth flow of goods across the internal market.
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps he is taking to ensure that the deployment of offshore renewables does not impact on blue carbon stores.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The UK Government is committed to reaching clean power by 2030 and restoring nature. We need to ensure that our marine ecosystems are healthy, and capturing and storing carbon too. This means that new energy infrastructure needs to be planned and developed in a way that protects the natural environment and supports nature recovery.
Assessment and mitigation of environmental impacts are a core part of our planning processes, and future spatial plans will support rebuilding our natural infrastructure at the same time as building the new energy infrastructure we need for the twenty first century.
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions he has had with his international counterparts on the security of Buddhists in Tibet in (a) November and (b) December 2024.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This Government stands firm on human rights, including China's repression of the people of Tibet. We will champion freedom of religion or belief for all abroad, and work to uphold the right to freedom of religion or belief through the UN, G7 and other multilateral fora, and through bilateral engagement.
We continue to coordinate efforts with our international partners to hold China to account for human rights violations, for example, joining a statement led by Australia on Xinjiang and Tibet at the UN General Assembly on 22 October. The Foreign Secretary has raised human rights in every meeting with his Chinese counterpart Foreign Minister Wang Yi, including during his recent visit to China on 18 October.