Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help ensure that local authority trading standards bodies have sufficient (a) funding and (b) other resources to tackle (i) illicit vapes and (ii) underage sales.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is concerned about the increase in the number of illicit vapes in the United Kingdom’s market, and the easy access and availability of these vapes to children. To strengthen our enforcement activity, we are providing an additional £30 million per year for enforcement agencies, including Trading Standards, to support work in tackling illicit and underage sales. We are working closely with Trading Standards to consider how the new funding can best support their programmes of local-level enforcement.
In April last year, we also provided £3 million of new funding for a new enforcement unit to tackle the illegal and underage sale of vapes, which has conducted targeted inspections in retail outlets and ports, upskilled Trading Standards officers, and piloted online underage test programmes.
The Government will also introduce fixed penalty notices (FPNs) for the underage sale of tobacco and vaping products. This will support Trading Standards in taking quicker and more proportionate enforcement action against the irresponsible retailers who allow underage sales. Enforcement authorities will retain all the proceeds from FPNs, to reinvest in the enforcement of tobacco and vaping product legislation.
Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help tackle the sale of illegal vapes to people under the age of 18.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is concerned about the increase in the number of illicit vapes in the United Kingdom’s market, and the easy access and availability of these vapes to children. To strengthen our enforcement activity, we are providing an additional £30 million per year for enforcement agencies, including Trading Standards, to support work in tackling illicit and underage sales. We are working closely with Trading Standards to consider how the new funding can best support their programmes of local-level enforcement.
In April last year, we also provided £3 million of new funding for a new enforcement unit to tackle the illegal and underage sale of vapes, which has conducted targeted inspections in retail outlets and ports, upskilled Trading Standards officers, and piloted online underage test programmes.
The Government will also introduce fixed penalty notices (FPNs) for the underage sale of tobacco and vaping products. This will support Trading Standards in taking quicker and more proportionate enforcement action against the irresponsible retailers who allow underage sales. Enforcement authorities will retain all the proceeds from FPNs, to reinvest in the enforcement of tobacco and vaping product legislation.
Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to support parents of children with SEND to remain in the workforce.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Eligible Universal Credit (UC) customers can claim back up to 85% of childcare costs making it easier for families to take up and progress in work.
In the past year the Department has increased the generosity of the UC childcare costs maximum amounts by over 50%, to £1015 for one child and £1,739 for two children or more.
UC childcare support is paid to registered providers for example, OFSTED and providers registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information he holds on the number and proportion of participants of the Kickstart scheme that are in employment.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Impact Assessment on Kickstart is currently being finalised. This assessment will quantify any impact on movement into employment following the scheme. We aim to publish the findings of this assessment in due course.