Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the Export Control Joint Unit reviews urgent trade sanctions license applications in a timely manner.

Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)

In making decisions on whether to grant a licence to permit something otherwise prohibited by sanctions legislation & regulations, the Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU), comprised of subject matter experts and officials in the Department for Business and Trade, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and the Ministry of Defence, acts on behalf of the Secretary of State. ECJU is obligated to consider applications on a case-by-case basis, determining whether granting a licence would be consistent with the stated purposes of the sanctions regime, licensing grounds, and United Nations or international law obligations. When assessing applications ECJU also consults and considers views from a range of other government departments.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what his planned timetable is for consulting on activity regulations to be introduced under the Animals (Low-Welfare Abroad) Act 2023.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Future decisions on which animal activities will fall in scope of the legislation will need to be evidence-based and subject to Parliamentary scrutiny. This Government continues to make animal welfare a priority and we are currently exploring a number of options to ensure progress as soon as is practicable. Additionally, we are supporting several Private Members’ Bills to deliver on animal welfare measures in the Kept Animals Bill, and I will be in the chamber tomorrow to listen to the proposals put forward by my Right Honourable Friend the member for North Devon.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has approved the business case costings for the New Hospital Programme.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

On 25 May 2023, the Government announced that the New Hospital Programme (NHP) is expected to represent over £20 billion of capital investment for the financial year 2030/31, and that there would be a rolling programme of investment in health infrastructure in the longer term. Future spending beyond this current spending review period will be subject to the usual spending review processes.

The NHP has developed a third version of its Programme Business Case (PBC) which includes costs for the programme’s future spend. This was approved by the Department’s Joint Investment Committee on 19 February 2024. Following this approval, the PBC will go through Government assurance processes in May 2024.

Future spend will be confirmed through the usual processes of future spending reviews, and all funding allocations for specific schemes within the NHP will only be confirmed once the individual Full Business Cases have been reviewed and agreed by ministers.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether (a) supply chain, (b) labelling and (c) other processes and requirements are in place to ensure that imported wood comes from a sustainable forestry scheme.

Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The United Kingdom Timber Regulations (UKTR) prohibit the placing of illegally harvested timber on the market. Under the Withdrawal Act, UKTR applies to GB. Businesses must exercise due diligence on timber imports to demonstrate legality of harvest.

The Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Regulations and associated Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPA), aim to improve the supply of verified legal timber to the UK market. Producer countries who have agreed a VPA with the UK and can demonstrate effective nationwide controls verifying legality of harvest, can issue FLEGT licences.

Under the UK Government Timber Procurement Policy, all timber products procured for use on the Government estate must meet accepted standards of legality and sustainability.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what estimate she has made of the average annual tonnage of wood imported for burning in (a) industrial and (b) domestic settings; which (i) countries and (ii) sites in those countries that wood is imported from; and how many tonnes on average comes from each of those countries each year.

Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

Figures on the amount of imported wood and waste wood by country is published in The Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES) Table 6.6, but information on sites is not collected. Imports of waste wood are used in the industrial, commercial and agricultural sectors and all imports of wood are burnt in the domestic sector; of the 2,319 thousand tonnes of wood consumed in the domestic sector in 2022, 198 thousand tonnes were imported.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what estimate she has made of the average annual tonnage of wood burnt in homes in the UK.

Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

Figures on the amount of imported wood and waste wood by country is published in The Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES) Table 6.6, but information on sites is not collected. Imports of waste wood are used in the industrial, commercial and agricultural sectors and all imports of wood are burnt in the domestic sector; of the 2,319 thousand tonnes of wood consumed in the domestic sector in 2022, 198 thousand tonnes were imported.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether officials in his Department with responsibility for engaging with hon. Members are given training on the types of visas that are available.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

Officials responsible for engaging with Hon. Members are required to complete an initial 12-week training programme, which includes training on the visa routes available.

Following the initial training programme, officials are subject to assurance checks on all their work until they are assessed to meet the required quality standard.

Ongoing development ensures that officials keep their understanding of immigration routes up to date.

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 potential impact of her Department's decision to exclude people aged between 66 and 69 on 1 September 2023 who do not have a severely weakened immune system in the phased roll-out of the shingles vaccination on those people.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

An assessment on the potential impact of not providing the vaccine to people aged 66 to 69 years old is not required, as they remain eligible to receive a shingles vaccination when they turn 70 years old, as they would have done prior to 1 September 2023.

The current policy offers the shingles vaccine Shingrix to anyone who turned 65 or 70 years old on or after 1 September 2023, and to anyone aged 50 years old and over who is at higher risk of serious complications as a result of having a severely weakened immune system.

This approach has been used in the effective implementation of previous immunisation programmes. Whilst some individuals may have to wait until they are eligible, the population benefit of adopting this approach is greater, meaning many individuals will receive the vaccine sooner and will benefit for longer.

The approach is modelled on the first shingles programme, optimizing achievements within the resources and capacity of the National Health Service, while being delivered alongside other important healthcare priorities, and avoiding undue additional pressure on NHS delivery services.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what discussions he has had with his Peruvian counterpart on the potential impact of that country's Forestry Law on (a) deforestation and (b) human rights.

Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

I [Minister Rutley] visited Peru in October 2023 and held discussions with senior representatives of the Peruvian Government on a range of priorities, such as the importance of protecting human rights and the environment. We are working with the Peruvian Government to drive sustainable development that protects human rights and delivers climate objectives. Our Embassy in Lima has regularly discussed with the Peruvian Government the potential impacts of changes to the Forestry and Wildlife Law and raised concerns about how these could affect achievement of Peru's international commitments.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether UK Visa and Immigration is meeting the eight-week service standard for processing graduate visas.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

We are operating within the eight-week service standard for Graduate applications.

Some applications may take longer if we have requested further information, or if their personal circumstances are complex. Further details can be found at Visa processing times: applications inside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department plans to provide funding to Women's Aid in the next three financial years.

Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)

Tackling violence against women and girls is a government priority. Our strategies aim to transform the whole of society’s response to these crimes with actions to prevent abuse, support victims and ensure more perpetrators are bought to justice.

The Home Office has provided funding to Women’s Aid of up to £1.34m until March 2025 to deliver the Flexible Fund. This fund will help hundreds of domestic abuse victims next year who will receive lifeline payments to help escape tormenting and often life-threatening abuse, providing the chance to rebuild their lives. We are also investing £753k into Women’s Aid next year to improve the awareness of domestic abuse amongst young people.

Funding beyond March 2025 is subject to future budgets which will be set through the next Spending Review process.

One year anniversary of the kidnapping of Elizabeth Tsurkov

Found: Conservative, East Devon ) John Nicolson MP (Scottish National Party, Ochil and South Perthshire ) Alex

Found: Conservative, East Devon ) John Nicolson MP (Scottish National Party, Ochil and South Perthshire ) Alex

Found: Conservative, East Devon ) John Nicolson MP (Scottish National Party, Ochil and South Perthshire ) Alex

Found: National Party, Ochil and South Perthshire ) Jane Stevenson MP (Conservative, Wolverhampton North East ) Alex

Found: North ), Kerry McCarthy MP ( Labour, Bristol East ), Chris Skidmore MP (Conservative, Kingswood ), Alex

Found: North ), Kerry McCarthy MP ( Labour, Bristol East ), Chris Skidmore MP (Conservative, Kingswood ), Alex

Found: North ), Kerry McCarthy MP ( Labour, Bristol East ), Chris Skidmore MP (Conservative, Kingswood ), Alex

Found: Sobel; Giles Watling.

Found: Q233 Alex Sobel: Thank you, Chair. I used to be on the Environmental Audit Committee.

Found: the session where we undertook to provide correspondence in response to Q93 from Committee Member Alex

Found: Q233 Alex Sobel: Thank you, Chair. I used to be on the Environmental Audit Committee.

Found: Sobel .

Found: Sobel .

Found: Nickie Aiken Miss Sarah Dines Jane Hunt Sir Robert Buckland Paul Bristow Adam Holloway Alex

Found: Nickie Aiken Miss Sarah Dines Jane Hunt Sir Robert Buckland Paul Bristow Adam Holloway Alex

Found: Nickie Aiken Miss Sarah Dines Jane Hunt Sir Robert Buckland Paul Bristow Adam Holloway Alex

Found: Nickie Aiken Miss Sarah Dines Jane Hunt Sir Robert Buckland Paul Bristow Adam Holloway Alex

Found: Nickie Aiken Miss Sarah Dines Jane Hunt Sir Robert Buckland Paul Bristow Adam Holloway Alex

Found: Nickie Aiken Miss Sarah Dines Jane Hunt Sir Robert Buckland Paul Bristow Adam Holloway Alex

Found: Nickie Aiken Miss Sarah Dines Jane Hunt Sir Robert Buckland Paul Bristow Adam Holloway Alex

Found: Nickie Aiken Miss Sarah Dines Jane Hunt Sir Robert Buckland Paul Bristow Adam Holloway Alex