Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what criteria his Department uses to determine whether water companies have failed to carry out their (a) statutory functions and (b) licensed activities to such an extent that his Department would apply to the High Court for them to be placed into special administration under the provisions of the Water Industry Act 1991.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Defra Secretary of State and the Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat), with consent of the Secretary of State, have the power to request the court to place a company in a special administration regime (SAR) so that its business can either be rescued or transferred as a going concern to new owners. Section 24 (2) of the Water Industry Act 1991 sets out the legal parameters for which a SAR can be applied for.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding the (a) National Institute for Health and Care Research and (b) UK Research Institute has provided for Parkinson's research in each of the last five years.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson

The Government’s responsibility for delivering Parkinson’s disease research is shared between the Department of Health and Social Care, with research delivered by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), with research delivered via UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Between the financial years 2019/20 and 2023/24, the Department of Health and Social Care, via the NIHR, funded Parkinson’s research projects to a total value of £12.9 million of programme spend.

As well as funding research itself, the NIHR invests significantly in research expertise and capacity, specialist facilities, support services, and collaborations, to support and deliver research in England. Collectively this forms the NIHR’s infrastructure. The NIHR’s infrastructure enables the country’s leading experts to develop and deliver high-quality translational, clinical, and applied research into Parkinson’s disease. For example, in the financial year 2022/23, the NIHR Clinical Research Network supported 114 studies related to Parkinson’s disease. UKRI spent over £66 million on research into Parkinson’s disease between the financial years 2019/20 and 2023/24. The following table shows the breakdown of spend on Parkinson's research for the NIHR and UKRI, each year from 2019/20 to 2023/24:

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of his proposed changes to the Personal Independence Payment on unpaid carers and their eligibility to receive Carer’s Allowance.

Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities

Modernising Support for Independent Living: The Health and Disability Green Paper looks at different options to reshape the current welfare system so that we can provide better targeted support to those who need it most. We are considering these options through our 12-week consultation which was published on Monday 29 April and will close on Monday 22 July at 11:59pm. Any possible impacts on unpaid carers and their eligibility to receive Carer’s Allowance will be considered as necessary.

There will be no immediate changes to PIP, or to health assessments. All scheduled PIP assessments and payments will proceed as normal, and claimants should continue to engage as usual and provide any necessary information or updates regarding their circumstances.

We encourage everyone to respond to the consultation which can be found here, so that we are able to hear from as many disabled people, people with health conditions, their representatives, and local stakeholders as possible on these important issues.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of unpaid carers receiving Carer’s Allowance are caring for someone who receives Personal Independence Payment.

Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities

The latest readily available statistics from November 2023 show 145,156 unpaid carers were claiming Carer’s Allowance in England and Wales were also receiving Personal Independence Payment. This data is available on Stat X-plore here.

These statistics show 486,123 people in receipt of Carer’s Allowance in England and Wales were caring for someone in receipt of a Personal Independence Payment, which was 54% of the Carer’s Allowance in receipt caseload.

Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. They should therefore be treated with caution.  

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many unpaid carers receiving Carer’s Allowance are in receipt of Personal Independence Payment.

Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities

The latest readily available statistics from November 2023 show 145,156 unpaid carers were claiming Carer’s Allowance in England and Wales were also receiving Personal Independence Payment. This data is available on Stat X-plore here.

These statistics show 486,123 people in receipt of Carer’s Allowance in England and Wales were caring for someone in receipt of a Personal Independence Payment, which was 54% of the Carer’s Allowance in receipt caseload.

Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. They should therefore be treated with caution.  

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, whether she has written to the Prime Minister on Gaza and war crimes since 1 April 2024.

Answered by Victoria Prentis

I cannot answer your question as to do so would be in breach of the Law Officers’ Convention.

Paragraph 2.13 of the Ministerial Code clearly states that the fact that the Law Officers have advised or have not advised and the content of their advice must not be disclosed outside Government without their authority.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the oral contribution of the Prime Minister of 8 May 2024 in response to a question from the hon. Member for Weston Super Mare, which the 500 dental practices referred to are; and how many of those practices were registering NHS patients on 8 May 2024.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom

Our Dentistry Recovery Plan, backed by £200 million, will make dental services faster, simpler, and fairer for National Health Service dental patients. It will fund approximately 2.5 million additional appointments, or more than 1.5 million additional courses of dental treatment. A New Patient Premium is supporting dentists to take on new patients and as of 8 April 2024, nearly 500 more practices have said they are open to new patients, compared to the end of January 2024. The Find a Dentist website allows people to see which practices have said they are accepting new patients, with further information available at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/find-a-dentist

No estimates are currently available on the number of new patients seen by dental practices since the New Patient Premium scheme was introduced, but we are committed to evaluating the impacts of the measures included in our plan, and we will publish monthly data on progress once this is available.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 20 February 2023 to Question 142657 on Mental Health Services: Children and Young People, what progress has been made on work to (a) establish the feasibility and associated risks of introducing new mental health waiting time standards for (i) adult's and (ii) children and young people’s community-based mental health services and (b) support the development of a baseline position for waiting times.

Answered by Maria Caulfield

NHS England will publish new core community all-age mental health waiting time metrics from autumn 2024, which will encompass activity data from April 2024. It will cover the percentage of patients receiving meaningful help within four weeks of referral to community mental health services. Once published, NHS England will focus on improving data quality, including ensuring appropriate Systematised Nomenclature of Medicine data is flowed to show when patients are receiving meaningful help. Improved data quality within community mental health services will provide greater insights into the frequency and types of therapeutic provision.

The publication of the new community waiting times metrics is expected to increase transparency and local accountability on waiting times for community mental health services. Furthermore, NHS England expect that publication of the data will improve the quality of the data, so that the Department and NHS England will be in a better position to assess the costs and benefits of introducing performance standards against these metrics.

Systems have also been asked to focus on reducing long waits in community mental health services and to develop local plans to support this, including by improving data quality. We will work with systems to develop an agreed baseline and improvement trajectories for waits over 104 weeks in autumn 2024, as referenced in NHS England’s 2024/25 Operational Planning Guidance.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 16 May 2024 to Question 25822 on War Crimes: Gaza and with reference to paragraph 2.13 of the Ministerial Code, updated on 22 December 2022, if she will hold discussions with the Prime Minister on the potential merits of using her authority to publish summaries of advice provided to him on alleged war crimes in Gaza since 1 April 2024.

Answered by Victoria Prentis

As per my previous answer to UIN 25822 tabled on Thursday 16 May, and as reflected in the Ministerial Code, I do not confirm publicly whether I or any other Law Officer has advised on a particular issue or the content of any advice, save where I, as a Law Officer, explicitly consent. That consent is rarely given.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the report by HM Inspectorate of Prisons entitled Report on an announced inspection of HMP Lewes by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons 5–16 February 2024, published on 14 May 2024, what discussions he has had on conditions in HMP Lewes in the last six months; when did these discussions take place; and what estimate he has made of the amount of investment required to tackle rising levels of (a) violence, (b) self-harm, (c) drug misuse, (d) ageing infrastructure and (e) staffing shortfalls at the prison.

Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice

Ministers and senior officials continue to engage closely with leaders responsible for HMP Lewes in a variety of ways, not limited to in-person meetings and site visits.

The Prison Group Director for Kent, Surrey and Sussex frequently visits HMP Lewes, and his assessment of conditions at the prison informs consideration by Ministers and senior officials.

HMP Lewes is subject to estate-wide, nationally-led, security and safety improvement programmes. These include the installation of security features such as body scanners and other technology to stop illicit substances, weapons, and mobile telephones from entering prisons. Additionally, we have invested to incentivise drug-free living, and to continue work that is already under way in removing potential ligature points in cells.

A range of ongoing and planned projects to improve the infrastructure at HMP Lewes includes refurbishing showers, upgrading heating systems, replacing windows, and installing more decency features.

As these programmes and projects are funded from a variety of budgets, some of which are estate-wide, it is not possible to provide a breakdown of costs.

Our staffing position has greatly improved across the estate. At prisons where recruitment challenges remain, we will continue to offer an additional supplement to attract new Prison Officers.

More information is available in the Prisons White Paper, which can be accessed via the following link: Prisons Strategy White Paper - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners in HMP Lewes were (a) released as street homeless and (b) released and recalled (i) once and (ii) multiple times in each of the last six months.

Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice

We are unable to provide data on street homelessness beyond 31 March 2023 as that data is a subset of data due for future publication and releasing it at this time would breach official statistics publication rules, as outlined in the Code of Practice for Statistics. Data for the latest six-month period, October 2022-March 2023, is available is provided in table 1 below.

Table 1: Number not housed on the first night of release from HMP Lewes, with an accommodation status at release recorded as Homeless - Rough Sleeping by month of release, October 2022 to March 2023.

Notes:

1. These figures are drawn from administrative data systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent.

2. Data is consistent with metric CU150 Housed on the first night of custodial release, contained within the latest Performance Ratings publication, 2022-2023: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/prison-performance-ratings-2022-to-2023

3. In order to be counted in measure CU150, the release event must be found in both Prison-NOMIS and nDelius. Unmatched release events are excluded. (I.e., the figures provided might not include all cases).

4. Release events with a missing or obsolete status are treated as "negative" in this measure, as are release events with multiple statuses.

Data source: National Delius and Prison NOMIS

We are unable to provide data on releases and recall of offenders beyond 31 December 2023 as that data is a subset of data due for future publication and releasing it at this time would breach official statistics publication rules, as outlined in the Code of Practice for Statistics. Data for the latest six-month period, July 2023 - December 2023, is available is provided in table 2 below.

Table 2: The number of first-time releases from HMP Lewes from July- December 2023, and subsequent recalls by 31 December 2023

Notes:

1. Offenders are counted once in each month of release. There could be a handful of offenders counted twice across different months where they were released for the first time on different sentences.

2. Recalls are counted from date of release up to 31 December 2023. Where further recalls have occurred beyond 31 December 2023, these recalls are not included.

3. Given releases in later months have a shorter time for recalls to occur, direct comparisons across months are biased. The months have different lengths of time for recalls to occur.

4. Disclosure control: An asterisk (*) has been used to suppress values of one or two. This is to prevent the disclosure of individual information. Further suppression may be applied where needed.

5. Data quality: The figures in these tables have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

Data source: P-NOMIS and Public Protection Unit Database (PPUD)

We know that having a safe place to stay helps cut crime which is why we are investing in our transitional accommodation service so prison leavers can have a guaranteed 12 weeks of basic, temporary accommodation to provide a stable base on release.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Point of Order by the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion of 21 May 2024 and the report entitled Protecting our Democracy from Coercion, HC 775, published on 21 May 2024, if he will amend page 1 of that report to include the registered interests of the UK Government’s independent adviser on political violence and disruption.

Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Shadow Minister (Home Office) (Security)

Lord Walney is the UK Government’s independent adviser on political violence and disruption.

Lord Walney’s report, published on 21 May and entitled Protecting our Democracy from Coercion, is an independent report. Therefore, the Home Secretary is not able to make any amends to it.

It would be for Lord Walney as the report’s author to consider any necessary alterations.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish the (a) members, (b) terms of reference, (c) agendas and (d) summaries of meetings of his Department's Biodiversity Expert Committee.

Answered by Rebecca Pow

The Biodiversity Expert Committee is a subgroup of Defra’s Science Advisory Council; and members, terms of reference and meeting notes will be published on their website in due course. Upcoming agendas are not published as they can be reactive.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to the press release entitled Families, business and industry to get energy efficiency support, published on 18 December 2023, what her Department's timeframe is for publishing the guidance on the new local authority retrofit scheme.

Answered by Amanda Solloway

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, with reference to paragraph 4.11 of the Independent Commission for Aid Impact’s report entitled UK aid’s international climate finance commitments, published on 29 February 2024, for what reason his Department has categorised 30 per cent of the funding for The Assurance and Learning Programme as international climate finance.

Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)

To recognise the work that is being done to support resilience building in the most climate-vulnerable countries a fixed proportion of 30 per cent International Climate Finance will be applied to programmes delivering and supporting humanitarian work being done in countries that fall into the bottom 10 per cent in terms of recognised climate vulnerability rankings, including Afghanistan.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 1 December 2023 to Question 3175 on Natural History: GCSE, for what reason the consultation on the subject content was not launched in early 2024; on what date it will be launched; and what support will be offered to schools to help implement Natural History GCSE by September 2025.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Shadow Secretary of State for Education

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Protecting Our Democracy from Coercion report

Imperial War Museums and union derecognition

Diagnosing Coeliac disease

Scrutiny of the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs and arms exports to Israel

19th Joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day ceremony

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