Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
What discussions he has had with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on how to accelerate the acceptance of data generated in non-animal methods for drug safety decision making.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) attended a ministerial roundtable on accelerating the adoption of alternatives to using animals for drug development earlier this year.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how he determined the level of funding to be provided to the Reducing Veterans Homelessness Programme in 2026.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The £3.5 million announced by the Prime Minister will fund an additional round of the Reducing Veteran Homelessness programme and Op FORTITUDE, ensuring that support will be there into 2026 for veterans at risk of homelessness.
The funding has been allocated in line with previous successful programme levels.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the cost to his Department was of the Continuity of Education Allowance in the latest period for which data is available; and what recent estimate his Department has made of the impact of making independent school fees subject to VAT on the cost to his Department of the Continuity of Education Allowance in the next financial year.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
For Academic Year 2023-24, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) paid £88.6 million for Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA) to support the education of 4,005 children for 2,666 Service personnel. Following the Budget statement by the Chancellor on 30 October, the MOD confirmed that it would carry out an in-year re-rating of CEA. The increased cost of the allowance to MOD is unknown until the exercise completes in early December.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing mobile dental services in (a) Cambridgeshire and (b) Peterborough.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are clear that Faster, simpler and fairer: our plan to recover and reform NHS dentistry, also known as the Dentistry Recovery Plan, published on 7 February 2024, did not go far enough to improve access for dentistry patients in the National Health Service. As part of our ambitions for dentistry, we will review what elements of the Dentistry Recovery Plan can be taken forward and within NHS budgets, including the proposals for dental vans.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to paragraph 4.20 of Autumn Budget 2024, HC 295, published on 30 October 2024, by how much the core government grant for police forces will be increased for Cambridgeshire Constabulary.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Budget confirmed that the core government grant for police forces will increase. Further details and force level allocations will be set out at the provisional settlement in December.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress the Royal Air Force has made on creating a first Net Zero airbase by 2025.
Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Chief of the Air Staff remains committed to the pledge that all RAF estate will operate beyond estate-powering fossil fuels by 2050.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when he plans to publish an updated Veterans' Strategy.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
The Government is committed to ensuring veterans are supported in health, housing, employment and other key areas. We are already taking action to strengthen support for our veterans, including delivering on our commitment to approve the Veterans ID card as valid voter ID, and will announce further plans in due course.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the replacement will be for Hawk T1 aircraft in the Royal Air Force.
Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The planned out-of-service date for Hawk T1 aircraft remains 2030, and a decision on a replacement aircraft will not be taken until after the Strategic Defence Review is completed.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that community benefit funds provide adequate compensation to communities affected by nationally significant infrastructure projects.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
It is the Government’s priority to build support for developments by ensuring communities directly benefit, as per the commitment set out in the election manifesto. As such we are reviewing how to most effectively deliver community benefits for communities living near new energy infrastructure.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of (a) current and (b) future planned incineration waste capacity is used in (a) Cambridgeshire and (b) Peterborough.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Local authorities consider their waste treatment capacity needs at local level via Waste Local Plans. The Government does not undertake assessments of the national proportion of waste management and treatment facilities at an individual authority level. Before the end of this year, however, we hope to publish an analysis of municipal residual waste treatment infrastructure capacity, including exports, against expected future residual waste arisings in England so we can understand what future capacity may be required following implementation of the packaging reforms. This will include assessment of currently operational and consented capacity at a national level and by planning region. This analysis will support decision making relating to planning for new residual waste treatment infrastructure.
The published Local Authority Collected Waste Management Statistics detail waste collected by local authorities and how this is managed and treated. These statistics are available here.