Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he plans to lay commencement regulations to bring section 115 of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 into force.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Regulations (2024/452) have been laid on 4 April 2024 to commence section 115 of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023, and this will come into force on 25 April 2024.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what recent discussions he has had with his Israeli counterpart on tackling sexual violence in conflict; and if he will make it his policy to call for incidents of sexual violence by (a) Hamas and (b) the Israel Defense Forces to be independently investigated.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The UK condemns sexual violence unequivocally and without exception. Reports of sexual violence on and since 7th October are deeply disturbing. The UK has consistently called for these reports to be fully investigated to ensure justice for survivors and victims.
Through our Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict programmes and dedicated funding totalling £60 million, we are leading work internationally to prevent conflict-related sexual violence and strengthen justice and support for all survivors.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the terms and conditions of the next round of the Jewish Community Protective Security Grant will be announced; and if he will take steps to ensure that there is no gap in the provision of funding from that grant.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The safety and security of the Jewish community is of the utmost importance to the Government. In light of the Israel/Hamas conflict and its impact on domestic hate crime, the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement confirmed that protective security funding for the Jewish community will be maintained at £18 million in 2024/25. In February 2024, in response to reports of increased incidents of antisemitism in the UK, the Prime Minister announced that CST will receive the same level of funding each year to 2027/28 (totalling £54 million for 2025-2028).
The Community Security Trust will continue to manage the grant on behalf of the Home Office, providing protective security measures (such as guarding, CCTV and alarm systems) at Jewish schools, colleges, nurseries, and other Jewish community sites, as well as a number of synagogues.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 25 March 2024 to Question 19031 on Universal Credit: Housing, for what reason there are different qualifying criteria for (a) Support for Mortgage Interest and (b) support that homeowners receive in respect of service charges.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) and help with service charges cover different costs and different eligibility criteria apply.
SMI is paid at a rate that the lending industry generally accept as sufficient to avert the threat of repossession. This help is often significantly less than the homeowner’s contractual liability, although eligibility was recently extended to assist homeowners with rising interest rates. While SMI provides support at the point of need, this help is in the form of an interest-bearing loan that is recoverable from equity when the property is sold.
Eligible service charges are met in full and this help is in the form of a non-recoverable benefit.
Given these differences the Department see no compelling argument for aligning entitlement rules.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make a comparative assessment of the adequacy of the reasons the (a) National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has been unable and (b) Scottish Medicines Consortium has been able to recommend Enhertu for use on the NHS.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes authoritative, evidence-based recommendations for the National Health Service in England on whether new licensed medicines should be routinely funded by the NHS, based on an assessment of their costs and benefits. Decisions on the availability of medicines in Scotland are a matter for the devolved administration.
The NICE published guidance in 2021 and 2023 recommending Enhertu, also known as trastuzumab deruxtecan, for the treatment of NHS patients with HER2-positive breast cancer through the Cancer Drugs Fund, and it is now available to eligible NHS patients in England in line with the NICE’s recommendations.
The NICE is currently evaluating Enhertu for the treatment of metastatic HER2-low breast cancer, and has not yet published final guidance. Stakeholders have had an opportunity to appeal against the NICE’s draft recommendations, and the NICE will consider any appeals through the established process and publish final guidance in due course.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
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 make it his policy to publish data on the amount of plastic burnt in incinerators each year.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We publish estimated tonnages of residual waste plastics processed by Energy from Waste facilities as part of our Experimental Statistics on the carbon impact of waste from households managed by local authorities in England.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
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 make it his policy to include the commitment to reduce plastic waste exports in his negotiating priorities for the Global Plastics Treaty.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK is a member of the High ambition coalition to end plastic pollution and has taken an ambitious stance in negotiations, supporting a treaty that will address the full life cycle of plastic including restraining and reducing the production and consumption of plastic to sustainable levels, addressing plastic design and encouraging more recycling and re-use of plastic. Controls on plastic waste exports are already established under the Basel Convention. The UK is an active Party to the Basel Convention and the UK supported the tightening of controls on plastic waste exports adopted by parties in 2019.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
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 with the Secretary of State for Business and Trade to reduce exports of plastic waste.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We want to deal with more of our plastic waste at home. The Government’s collection and packaging reforms will help to stimulate investment in the UK reprocessing infrastructure so we can reduce our dependency on plastic waste exports. In addition, the 2019 Conservative Party manifesto made a commitment to ban the export of plastic waste to countries which are not members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
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 reduce levels of incineration of plastic.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are clear that we want to see less residual waste being generated in the first instance. To this end, in addition to our Collection and Packaging Reforms, we have set a statutory target under The Environmental Targets (Residual Waste) (England) Regulations 2023 to ensure that the total mass of residual waste (excluding major mineral wastes) for 2042 does not exceed 287 kg per person. This is the equivalent of a 50% reduction from 2019 levels. This is supported by an interim, non-statutory target set out in the Environmental Improvement Plan to ensure that residual municipal plastic waste for 2027 does not exceed 42 kg per person.
We are also working closely with DESNZ on the expansion of the UK Emissions Trading Scheme to cover fossil carbon emissions from waste incineration and EfW from 2028. This will provide an incentive for the development and uptake of decarbonisation technologies or waste management practices to reduce emissions from incineration of residual waste plastic.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
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 make it his policy to introduce a moratorium on new incineration capacity in the UK.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra officials are currently assessing planned Energy from Waste capacity against expected future residual waste arisings so we can understand what future capacity may be required following implementation of key commitments in the Resources and Waste Strategy. This further assessment of residual waste treatment capacity needs will be published in due course. We are clear that Government does not support overcapacity of residual waste treatment infrastructure at either a local or national level.