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 - Shadow Secretary of State 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 Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
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.
Asked by: Andrew Lewer (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether HM Courts and Tribunals Service plan to recruit additional staff to support repossession cases in preparation for when Section 21 evictions end.
Answered by Mike Freer
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) recently introduced the Renter’s (Reform) Bill to Parliament. This bill includes the provision to end Section 21, also known as ‘no fault’ evictions. DLUHC and MoJ are jointly working on the Justice Impact Test (JIT), an MoJ tool to identify, quantify and cost the impacts of the Renter’s Reform Bill on the civil justice system.
The scale of any resource requirement resulting from additional impacts on the justice system, will be subject to agreement between MoJ and the policy-owning department.
Asked by: Andrew Lewer (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many possession notices issued by private residential landlords in England and Wales cited antisocial behaviour as a reason in the most recent period for which data is available; and what the average (i) mean and (ii) median time was between a private residential landlord in England and Wales applying to the courts to repossess a property to the repossession taking place in such cases.
Answered by Mike Freer
The MoJ does not hold data on possession notices issued by landlords outside the court process. The MoJ publishes statistics here on the volume and timeliness of possession claims brought to court but we do not record the grounds for possession and therefore cannot extract claims relating to antisocial behaviour from other possession claims.
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, whether his Department has made an assessment of the effectiveness of WHO's implementation of harm reduction strategies to help reduce smoking; and will he make a statement.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Department has not made an assessment on the effectiveness of World Health Organization’s implementation of harm reduction strategies to help reduce smoking. We have no future plans to perform an assessment or issue a statement.
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, if he will publish the members of the delegation which attended the Global Tobacco Regulators Forum in 2023.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
One official from the Department’s tobacco control policy team attended to represent the United Kingdom as a lead and expert in tobacco control policy. It is not Department policy to publish the names below SCS1 that attend events.
Asked by: Andrew Lewer (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will call for the provision of urgent medical care for Emirlendris Benítez.
Answered by David Rutley
The UK continues to monitor the ongoing imprisonment and mistreatment of Emirlendris Benítez, who was arbitrarily detained in August 2018 for political reasons. We regularly raise the human rights situation in Venezuela at the UN Human Rights Council, and our Embassy in Caracas supports local non-governmental organisations working on human rights. The regime's practice of regularly targeting those engaged in human rights work stands in the way of democracy and a resolution to Venezuela's humanitarian crisis.
Asked by: Andrew Lewer (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will call for the unconditional release of Javier Tarazona..
Answered by David Rutley
The UK continues to monitor the ongoing imprisonment and mistreatment of Javier Tarazona, the director of the non-governmental organization FundaREDES who was arbitrarily detained in July 2021. We regularly raise the human rights situation in Venezuela at the UN Human Rights Council, and our Embassy in Caracas supports local non-governmental organisations working on human rights. In July 2022, the then FCDO Minister for Latin America issued a tweet calling for the release of Javier Tarazona. Human rights organisations must be able to work freely and without fear. The regime's practice of regularly targeting those engaged in human rights work stands in the way of democracy and a resolution to Venezuela's humanitarian crisis.
Asked by: Andrew Lewer (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will call for the removal of the Law for the audit, regularization, action and financing of non-governmental and related organizations proposed by the Venezuelan authorities.
Answered by David Rutley
The UK firmly supports the right of civil society to operate freely in all countries, including Venezuela. Recent years have seen a worrying deterioration of the human rights situation in Venezuela, where the Maduro regime has used force against peaceful protesters, stifled media freedom, carried out arbitrary detentions and harassed journalists and human rights defenders. The UK is closely monitoring the proposed Law on control, regularization, operations and financing of non-governmental and related organisations, which would limit further the civil and democratic space. We raised the proposed bill at the UN Human Rights Council in March. We urge the Venezuelan regime to undertake constructive dialogue with the international community to ensure this space is protected in accordance with International Law.