Asked by: Andy Carter (Conservative - Warrington South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Office, what guidance her Department issues on fire safety in high-rise residential buildings; and whether that guidance includes instructions for residents of such buildings on action to take in the event of a fire.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office, as the Department responsible for fire safety, publishes a suite of guides to help Responsible Persons (RPs) understand and meet their legal duties under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (FSO), and regulations made under Article 24 of the FSO, in specific types of premises including high rise purpose-built blocks of flats. This includes guidance on how to meet their legal duties in relation to providing instructions for residents on what action to take in the event of a fire.
The Home Office has also issued guidance on the new legal duties RPs have to ensure residents are aware of the steps they are required to take in the event of a fire as part of the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 that came into force on 23 January 2023.
Asked by: Andy Carter (Conservative - Warrington South)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much and what proportion of spending on defence procurement was placed with UK companies in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The Department's latest publication on its regional expenditure with UK industry and commerce and supported employment for 2021-22 is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/mod-regional-expenditure-with-uk-industry-and-supported-employment-202122.
The MOD remains committed to its aim of ensuring the UK continues to have a world-leading defence and security industrial base. In 2021-22, over £21 billion of around £23.4 billion overall expenditure with industry was spent in the UK. These statistics relate to expenditure within the UK, based on the location of where work has taken place, and do not take account of corporate structure and ultimate ownership of each company.
Asked by: Andy Carter (Conservative - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether he is taking steps to help ensure that issues with the supply of liquified petroleum gas do not impact consumers.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The supply of liquified petroleum gas remains sufficient to meet demand across the UK. The Department works closely with industry to monitor the liquified petroleum gas supply position throughout the year and to take steps proactively to mitigate any risks that may affect distribution to customers and essential services.
Asked by: Andy Carter (Conservative - Warrington South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support his Department has provided to increase the availability of NHS dental appointments in Warrington in the last 12 months.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
In September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in Warrington. These will increase access to NHS dentistry whilst making the NHS dental contract more attractive to dental practices.
We have taken action to implement these changes, including through regulations that came into effect on 25th November 2022. The changes include a contractual requirement for NHS dentists to keep their NHS.UK profiles up to date, adherence to risk-based recall intervals, and enabling dentists to make better use of their team resources. The contractual changes of 28th December 2022 also provide for the commissioning of 110% of contracted Units of Dental Activities so that practices can deliver more NHS care, particularly in those areas where NHS dentistry is less prevalent.
NHS England is holding further discussions with the British Dental Association and other stakeholders for additional reforms of the NHS Dental System planned to take place in 2023
Asked by: Andy Carter (Conservative - Warrington South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of mental health spending on drugs trials takes place in the North West of England.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Since 2018, the NIHR has invested approximately £41 million through research programmes on pharmaceutical trials in mental health. Of this, £836,772 has been awarded to organisations in the North West of England. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including mental health. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality. It is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions.
Asked by: Andy Carter (Conservative - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an assessment of the potential financial impact of extending the copyright exception for text and data mining on news media publishers.
Answered by George Freeman
The Government sought evidence of impact on the creative industries in its consultation on AI and IP. The Government has welcomed further evidence from rights holders on financial impact over the Summer. In light of this, the Government will soon launch a period of stakeholder engagement to consider the best way to implement the policy. An impact assessment will be published alongside the legislation when laid.
Asked by: Andy Carter (Conservative - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's press release entitled Bumper £24 million to boost children’s literacy, published on 9 October 2022, whether that funding will be used to support children's speech and language skills.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government has committed £24 million to boost literacy in schools in the 2022/23 academic year. The majority of this funding will be distributed via the English Hubs programme.
The focus in the first two years of the programme has been on phonics teaching, with early language and reading for pleasure as secondary aims. In the third and fourth delivery year, English Hubs continue to focus on systematic synthetic phonics. A number of English Hubs have already started to deliver support in all three priority areas, including early language. In January 2023, the Hubs will begin delivering new early language training to schools, which has been designed by Hubs and external experts.
Asked by: Andy Carter (Conservative - Warrington South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to make Olaparib available on the NHS for people with prostate cancer.
Answered by Will Quince
In October 2022, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published guidance which does not recommend olaparib for the treatment of prostate cancer. ‘Olaparib for previously treated BRCA mutation-positive hormone-relapsed metastatic prostate cancer’ is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ta831
NICE continues to survey new evidence which may affect its published guidance and would consult on proposed changes with a wide range of stakeholders if significant new evidence were to emerge.
Asked by: Andy Carter (Conservative - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to help protect consumers from significant increases by energy companies in standing charges.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
For millions of households the level of standing charge is protected by the energy price cap rate set by Ofgem. While the setting of tariffs is a commercial matter for individual supply companies, the energy unit rate and the standing charge together must not exceed the price cap.
Ofgem have recently launched a consultation to review the component of the Standing Charge that consumers pay toward the Supplier of Last Resort levy. Ofgem expects to publish a response in August.
Asked by: Andy Carter (Conservative - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that Government funding allocated to local authorities for repairing potholes is used effectively; and what steps his Department is taking to ensure that those repairs are of a good standard.
Answered by Karl McCartney
Local highway authorities have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980, as amended, to maintain the highways network in their area. The Act does not set out specific standards of maintenance, as it is for each local highway authority to assess which parts of its network need repair and what standards should be applied, based upon their local knowledge and circumstances. The Government does not intervene or override local decisions in these matters.
Well-planned maintenance to prevent potholes and other defects from forming in the first place is vital, and the Department advocates a risk-based, whole life-cycle asset management approach to all aspects of the local highway network.
To assist local authorities in treating potholes and other road defects, the Department worked with the Association of Directors, for Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT) to publish in 2019 Potholes: a repair guide.
The Government has committed £915 million per year for local highways maintenance for local highway authorities outside London and Mayoral Combined Authorities, for the three years starting 2022-23, which includes pothole funding.