Asked by: Andrew Lewer (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what positions his Department will put forward on e-cigarettes at the Tenth Conference of the Parties to the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, COP10.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
There are no plans for Ministers to attend the Tenth Conference of the Parties to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (COP 10). The United Kingdom delegation will consist of officials from the Department’s as is usual practice.
The Government has regularly set out our position on vaping at the Conference of the Parties of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and will do so at the next conference in November 2023. The delegation will not agree to any decisions which would impact on our ability to make regulated vapes available for adult smokers who wish to quit smoking.
Asked by: Andrew Lewer (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has made an assessment of the required testing site capacity to carry out fire door tests for the new EN1634-1 classification within the proposed 12-month transition period as detailed in the consultation entitled Sprinklers in care homes, removal of national classes, and staircases in residential buildings consultation; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The consultation titled Sprinklers in care homes, removal of national classes, and staircases in residential buildings closed on 17 March 2023, with the department receiving over 270 responses. The department, alongside the Building Safety Regulator, is committed to working with the sector to bring about the changes highlighted in the consultation, at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Andrew Lewer (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the proposed 12-month transition period from the national fire door testing standard BS476 to the proposed new standard EN1634-1 on the (a) costs and (b) productivity of the timber fire door manufacturing sector; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The consultation titled Sprinklers in care homes, removal of national classes, and staircases in residential buildings closed on 17 March 2023, with the department receiving over 270 responses. The department, alongside the Building Safety Regulator, is committed to working with the sector to bring about the changes highlighted in the consultation, at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Andrew Lewer (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has held discussions with the timber fire door manufacturing sector on his Department's consultation entitled Sprinklers in care homes, removal of national classes, and staircases in residential buildings; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The consultation titled Sprinklers in care homes, removal of national classes, and staircases in residential buildings closed on 17 March 2023, with the department receiving over 270 responses. The department, alongside the Building Safety Regulator, is committed to working with the sector to bring about the changes highlighted in the consultation, at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Andrew Lewer (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of (a) refocussing the National Tutoring Programme to reach those children who need the most help and (b) ringfencing specific funding to support early intervention and expert literacy work to help close the attainment gap for pupils.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Since 2020, the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) has delivered over 3 million courses of tutoring to pupils most in need of catch up following the effect of COVID-19. There is extensive evidence that tutoring is one of the most effective ways to accelerate academic progress. This is why the Department is investing more than £1 billion in tutoring, so that pupils can catch up through accessing high quality tuition.
The Department’s guidance for the NTP in 2022/23 sets out that schools are expected to prioritise their Pupil Premium cohort to receive tutoring, in line with the programme’s objective of supporting disadvantaged pupils. Schools are best placed to understand the needs of their pupils and so may also consider offering tuition to other pupils, where appropriate. Since the programme was launched in 2020, the Department estimates that 49.8% of pupils who have received tuition through the NTP have been eligible for free school meals in the past 6 years.
The NTP allows schools to have autonomy in deciding what subjects to deliver tutoring in. In primary schools, a high proportion of tutoring is delivered in English and mathematics. Schools are also able to choose how best to provide tutoring for their pupils, either through academic mentors, outsourced tuition partners or school led tutoring.
Closing the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers is a priority for the Department. A large majority of school leaders across all three tutoring routes reported that the NTP was having a positive effect on reducing the attainment gap for disadvantaged pupils, including 85% of those doing school led tutoring, which is the most popular route under the NTP.
In addition, the Department has funded £17 million to deliver the Nuffield Early Language Intervention programme, improving the language skills of Reception age pupils. The programme targets pupils needing extra support with their speech and language development and is proven to help them make approximately three months of additional progress. Over two thirds of eligible mainstream primary schools are taking part in this evidence based programme, benefitting around 90,000 children who are most in need of language support.
The Department has committed that from 2024, tutoring will be embedded across schools in England. The Department is expecting tutoring to continue to be a staple offer from schools, with schools using their core budgets, including Pupil Premium, to fund targeted support for those pupils who will most benefit.
Asked by: Andrew Lewer (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority as an independent regulator.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Public Bodies Review Programme began its review of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) in March 2023, as part of its regular review process of all Government Arm’s Length Bodies. The review is due to conclude later this year. The Department will consider the report and its recommendations upon their publication.
Asked by: Andrew Lewer (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 26 May 2023 to Question 186145 on Global Tobacco Regulators Forum, what issues were discussed at that Forum; what issues the UK delegate raised; and what the conclusions of the Forum were.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) ‘No Tobacco Unit’ in the Health Promotion Department hosts and runs the Global Tobacco Regulators Forum (GTRF) meetings. Papers, discussions and conclusions from the meetings are not publicly available from the WHO.
However, we are able to disclose that the United Kindom delegate updated the GTRF about the 11 April Government announcements in achieving Smokefree 2030 including the launch of a world first vaping swap to stop scheme, the new illicit vape enforcement squad and work to tackle youth vaping.
Asked by: Andrew Lewer (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of regulating (a) Evri and (b) other delivery companies which do not meet expected customer service standards.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Postal Services Act 2011 designates Ofcom as the independent regulator for the postal sector with the powers to impose and enforce regulatory requirements on postal operators to fulfil its functions in relation to postal services.
In its review of postal regulation in 2022, Ofcom committed to ongoing monitoring of operators’ performance and keep under review the need for additional regulation to protect consumers.
The Government has no plans to seek change to the statutory requirements in this sector.
Asked by: Andrew Lewer (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which hospital trusts (a) employ at least one and (b) do not employ a motor neurone disease clinical nurse specialist; and, of the trusts that employ at least one, how many each of them employed in the latest period for which information is available.
Answered by Will Quince
NHS England publishes Hospital and Community Health Services workforce statistics for England, which are available at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics
The published data does not provide a breakdown by nurse specialty.
Asked by: Andrew Lewer (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the feasibility of (a) expanding the Unique Property Reference Number system to make it available for the wider property market and (b) encouraging the use of the Unique Property Reference Number system by the wider property market.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Government has already mandated the use of Unique Property Reference Numbers for gathering and storing address data in government systems which is available for the wider property market to use and benefit from.
We continue to explore a number of digital solutions to create an accessible 21st century residential property market and are developing a detailed plan to take this work forward which will focus on property data.