Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether an impact assessment was carried out on the impact of cuts to Official Development Assistance.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Prime Minister has set out a new strategic vision for government spending on defence and security, and official development assistance. Detailed decisions on how the Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget will be used will be worked through as part of the ongoing Spending Review on the basis of various factors including impact assessments.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of cuts to Official Development Assistance on (a) women and (b) children.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Prime Minister has set out a new strategic vision for government spending on defence and security, and Official Development Assistance (ODA). Detailed decisions on how the ODA budget will be used, including our work supporting women and children, will be worked through as part of the ongoing Spending Review based on various factors including impact assessments.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to increase physical activity levels for women.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is dedicated to supporting every aspect of women’s sport and ensuring all women and girls, no matter their background, have access to high quality sport.
We want to break down the barriers that exist and prevent women and girls from being active including but not limited to kit, facilities, time and cost. This Girl Can, which recently celebrated its ten year anniversary, is an inspiring campaign that has promoted women’s sport, challenged prejudice and made clear that sport is for everyone.
The Government provides the majority of support for grassroots sport through Sport England, which annually invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding. Separately, as a government, we are investing £123 million in inclusive grassroots sport facilities that will support more women and girls to take part in the sports that they love.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to support people living with a musculoskeletal condition to remain in work.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
MSK conditions are one of the leading conditions reported by people who are economically inactive due to long-term sickness in the UK, increasing by 34% between 2018/19 and 2023/24.
The ‘Get Britain Working’ white paper sets out government’s plans to reform employment, health and skills support to tackle rising economic inactivity levels including the £3.5m joint DWP, DHSC and NHS England ‘Getting It Right First Time’ MSK Community Delivery Programme which will work directly with ICBs to reduce MSK community waiting times, improve data and enable referral pathways to wider support services.
WorkWell sites also went live in 15 areas across England from October 2024, providing low intensity holistic support for health-related barriers to employment, and a single joined up gateway to existing local work and health service provision. By Spring 2026, WorkWell is expected to support up to 56,000 disabled people and people with health conditions, including MSK, to get into work and get on at work.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to support young people living with a long-term health condition to find work.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government recognises that many people find health conditions and disabilities a barrier to employment. Disabled people and people with health conditions are a diverse group so access to the right work and health support, in the right place, at the right time, is key.
Department for Work and Pensions currently provides young people aged 16-24, who are claiming Universal Credit, with labour market support through an extensive range of interventions at a national and local level. This support includes the Youth Employment Programme, Youth Hubs across Great Britain, and Youth Employability Coaches for young people with additional barriers to finding work. Youth Employability Coaches specifically work closely with Disability Employment Advisors to support those with disabilities and health conditions.
Department for Work and Pensions and Department for Education will also be launching a Youth Guarantee for all 18-21 year olds in England to ensure that they can access quality training opportunities, an apprenticeship or help to find work, starting in eight Youth Trailblazer areas from this Spring.
There are a range of specialist initiatives to support individuals with health conditions to stay in work and get back into work, which involve joint working between Department for Work and Pensions and Department for Health and Social Care. Support includes Employment Advisers in NHS Talking Therapies, Individual Placement and Support programme for people with severe mental illnesses, and Intensive Personalised Employment Support programme aimed at disabled people with complex barriers to employment. In addition, Department for Health and Social Care’s Early Support Hubs also provide employment advice and broader mental health and wellbeing support to young people aged 11-25.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency will complete its consideration of the recommendations of the Commission on Human Medicines on the findings of the Danielsson et al on primodos.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), together with wider Government, has committed to reviewing any new scientific evidence which comes to light.
The new publication by Danielsson et al has been reviewed by the MHRA, and advice has been sought from the Government’s independent advisory body, the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM), who have provided their independent expert advice on our assessment of whether the findings of the latest publication justify a further review. The MHRA will consider the recommendations given by the CHM before deciding whether any further action is warranted.
The minutes of the November CHM meeting will be made publicly available through the GOV.UK website at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to help support people affected by Primodos in Knowsley constituency.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
While the Government is sympathetic to the families who believe that they have suffered because of using Hormone Pregnancy Tests, the currently available scientific evidence does not support a causal association between the use of Hormone Pregnancy Tests during early pregnancy and adverse pregnancy outcomes.
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency has committed, together with the wider Government, to review any new scientific evidence which comes to light since the conclusions of the 2017 independent Expert Working Group convened by the Commission on Human Medicines.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of mandating sustainable drainage systems in all new developments.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is strongly committed to requiring standardised Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) in new developments. These should be to designs that cope with changing climatic conditions as well as delivering wider water infrastructure benefits, reduce run off and help to improve water quality, amenity and biodiversity. It is also important to ensure appropriate adoption and maintenance arrangements are in place.
We believe that these outcomes can be achieved through either improving the current planning led approach using powers now available or commencing Schedule 3 to the Flood and Water Management Act 2010. A final decision on the way forward will be made in the coming months.
We have made some immediate changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) to support increasing SuDS. The NPPF now requires all development to utilize SuDS where they could have drainage impacts. These systems should be appropriate to the nature and scale of the proposed development. See paragraphs 181 and 182 of the National Planning Policy Framework.
We will review the planning system holistically and consider whether further changes are required to address SuDS when we consult on further planning reform, including national policy related to decision making, in 2025.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of requiring water companies to implement pollution incident reduction plans.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Water (Special Measures) Bill will introduce a statutory duty for all water companies in England and Wales to publish annual Pollution Incident Reduction Plans. Water companies will be required to use these plans to set out the actions they intend to take to reduce the severity and frequency of pollution incidents.
The Government fully agrees that water companies must implement the actions it sets out in its plans. That is why we are we are requiring water companies to produce an annual implementation report alongside their plan, setting out where they have and have not implemented the measures they planned to implement in the preceding year, and what they plan to do to rectify any similar failures in future.
The Government is clear that failure to act is unacceptable. That is why if a company fails to publish a compliant plan and implementation report by the deadline each year, this will be considered an offence, enforced by the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales. Chief Executives will be required to approve both the plan and the report and will be personally liable for their publication.
During the passage of the Water (Special Measures) Bill, it was debated whether to include a statutory duty to implement pollution incident reduction plans. The Government does not believe this is appropriate. Doing so could result in companies creating enforceable duties on themselves. This would create confusion for our regulators and could also result in an inadvertent reduction of companies’ ambition.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to improve water infrastructure.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Water Environment (Water Framework Directive) (England and Wales) Regulations 2017 transposed the European Union’s Water Framework Directive (WFD) into law in England and Wales and were retained in UK law after EU exit.
In the Government’s response to the Office for Environmental Protection’s report on the implementation of the Water Framework Directive Regulations, this Government agreed that not enough progress has been made in meeting the Framework’s objective for water quality, to restore water bodies to good ecological status or good ecological potential. This is due to a failure by the previous Government to drive sufficient investment and action over the last 15 years since the first River Basin Management Plans were published.
The Secretary of State has made cleaning up the water environment a priority for Defra and made clear that increased action and investment, and more effective management of the water system as a whole is required.