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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps he has taken to regulate the safe disposal of lithium-ion batteries.

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

Existing UK regulations place a number of obligations related to battery disposal on producers of lithium-ion batteries and products containing lithium-ion batteries.

These obligations include the requirement for all batteries sold in the UK to be clearly marked with the crossed-out wheeled bin symbol indicating that they should not be disposed of by throwing them in the bin.

Those selling batteries are required to provide a means to take back waste batteries and producers of industrial batteries (which includes electric vehicle, e-bike and e-scooter batteries) must take back waste batteries free of charge upon request.

This Government is committed to cracking down on waste as we move towards a circular economy where we keep our resources in use for longer and reduce waste. Proposals to consult on reforms to the UK batteries regulations are being reviewed before setting out next steps.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of telecommunications systems resilience during power cuts.

Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

Government recognises the importance of the issue of power resilience for the sector. Whilst most power cuts are brief, we recognise the impact that they can have on the telephone network. We are working closely with the regulator, communications providers and the power sector to improve resilience and minimise disruption to the public and businesses as much as possible.

Communications providers have statutory responsibilities to take all appropriate and proportionate steps to minimise disruption to services and must ensure at least one form of communication is available for contacting emergency services for a minimum of one hour during a power outage. On 6 September 2024, Ofcom published detailed resilience guidelines specifying the measures that providers are expected to meet throughout their networks, including resilience to power cuts, and set out the analysis they are completing to consider whether additional resilience is required for mobile services.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether his Department plans to improve the resilience of local telecommunications networks through power outages.

Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

Government recognises the importance of the issue of power resilience for the sector. Whilst most power cuts are brief, we recognise the impact that they can have on the telephone network. We are working closely with the regulator, communications providers and the power sector to improve resilience and minimise disruption to the public and businesses as much as possible.

Communications providers have statutory responsibilities to take all appropriate and proportionate steps to minimise disruption to services and must ensure at least one form of communication is available for contacting emergency services for a minimum of one hour during a power outage. On 6 September 2024, Ofcom published detailed resilience guidelines specifying the measures that providers are expected to meet throughout their networks, including resilience to power cuts, and set out the analysis they are completing to consider whether additional resilience is required for mobile services.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the Environment Agency on the impact of lithium-ion battery explosions.

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

I have discussed the risks that incorrect disposal of waste batteries can have at a senior level with the Environment Agency, including in the context of fires at waste sites.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on enhancing (a) diet and (b) nutrition education in the school curriculum.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care have met to discuss a range of issues and projects.

This department’s independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, which will aim to deliver a curriculum that ensures young people leave compulsory education with the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to achieve and thrive throughout life. The call for evidence is drawing to a close, but the review group will be continuing with other forms of engagement for the rest of the first term of the 2024/25 academic year.

The importance of a healthy diet and good nutrition is already covered through a number of subjects in the national curriculum, including design and technology (D&T), science and relationships, sex and health education (RSHE).

The cooking and nutrition strand of D&T, which is compulsory for key stages 1 to 3, aims to teach children how to cook, with an emphasis on savoury dishes, and how to apply the principles of healthy eating and nutrition. It recognises that cooking is an important life skill that will help children to feed themselves and others, healthy and affordable food.

Similarly, in science, healthy eating is covered through topics relating to nutrition and digestion, which cover the content of a healthy diet and the impact of diet on how the body functions.

Furthermore, within health education as a part of RSHE, it is expected that by the end of primary, pupils should know what constitutes a healthy diet, including understanding calories and other nutritional content, the characteristics of a poor diet and the risks associated with unhealthy eating. By the end of secondary, pupils should know how to maintain healthy eating and the links between a poor diet and health risks, including tooth decay and cancer.

At GCSE, pupils can delve deeper into diet and nutrition by choosing to study Food Preparation and Nutrition. The subject requires pupils to understand and apply the principles of food science, nutrition and healthy eating when preparing and cooking food.

The department is also providing additional support for teachers through the Oak National Academy, who have been working to give teachers and their pupils access to free, optional and adaptable high quality digital curriculum resources. They have a wide array of lesson plans for D&T that contain healthy and tasty recipes to help children to understand the significance of what they put into their bodies.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment has he made of the potential impact of the Rodenticide Stewardship Scheme on bird species populations and their health.

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

The Rodenticide Stewardship Scheme is overseen by the Government Oversight Group (GOG) for Rodenticide Stewardship. This group is chaired by the Health and Safety Executive and includes representatives from relevant Government departments and agencies. It is conducting a review of rodenticide stewardship to consider how it can be strengthened in the UK. The work of this review is expected to be completed in 2025.

Natural England has investigated exposure and effects of second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs) on non-target bird species. It commissioned the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme (PBMS) to undertake monitoring of, and reporting on, exposure of red kites to SGARs. The analysis examines data including from the Defra-funded Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme data, and the reports are published and presented to GOG annually. Secondly, to understand the implications of SGAR exposure levels on the health of predatory birds, Natural England has worked with PBMS, using red kite and buzzard exposure data to develop a statistical model, to predict the probability of mortality rates due to SGAR exposure. More data and work would be required to apply the model and directly answer the question on impacts at a population level.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what support her Department provides to highways authorities to (a) adopt and (b) repair and (c)upgrade (i) unadopted and (ii) ownerless roads that form key parts of local road networks.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Unadopted roads that are not maintained at public expense by a highway authority are known as private streets, as defined by Section 203(2) of the Highways Act 1980. The responsibility for management of private streets rests with the owner, or more usually the frontagers, who are those owning property that fronts, or borders, the street concerned.

The Department has published guidance on gov.uk on “Highways Adoption: The Adoption of Roads into the Public Highway”, which was last updated in August 2022. It sets out how new and existing roads can be adopted by highway authorities so that they become maintainable at public expense. Any decision to adopt roads which are not highways maintainable at public expense is a matter for the local highway authority.