Asked by: Dan Aldridge (Labour - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of including measures to require boards to report on cyber resilience in the draft Audit Reform and Corporate Governance Bill.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
All large and medium-sized companies are already required to report on their material risks within their annual strategic report, including on cyber risk where this is a material risk. Recognising the important strategic role that boards of directors play in risk management, the Government intends to launch a Cyber Governance Code of Practice, and cyber governance training, to support boards in governing cyber risks and building cyber resilience. We will bring forward the draft Audit Reform and Corporate Governance Bill shortly, with which we intend to provide the audit and governance regulator with important new powers and objectives relating to the audit and reporting duties of directors.
Asked by: Dan Aldridge (Labour - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what discussions he has had with Meta on preventing the sale of illegal e-bikes on their marketplace platform.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Product safety law requires that all consumer products placed on the UK market must be safe. The Office for Product Safety and Standards, in my Department, has a programme of work focused on making sure online platforms, including Meta, are aware of their responsibilities for preventing the supply of unsafe products to UK consumers, and requires them to remove unsafe or non-compliant products made available on their sites.
Asked by: Dan Aldridge (Labour - Weston-super-Mare)
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 (a) reduce waiting times on her Department's helplines and (b) prevent calls from being cut off after long waiting periods.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
(a) Reduce waiting times on Department's helplines
DWP reviews forecasted telephony demand and plans resourcing accordingly to keep wait times down. Wait time performance is frequently reviewed and where DWP’s telephony is delivered by an outsourced provider we use the Key Performance Indicator of percentage of calls answered. All DWP customer telephone lines are Freephone numbers.
The Department is investing in a new capability that aims to better route customers to the right offer at the right time. This will help to reduce waiting times by supporting customers to utilise digital alternatives where appropriate and enables telephony agents to speak to our customers that really need to speak to someone. If a customer indicates they may be at risk of physical or mental harm e.g. suicide, terminal illness, homelessness, and clinical mental health, they will be routed to a telephony agent in as short a journey as possible.
The Department offers a wide range of reasonable adjustments for customers, including production of communications in a range of alternative formats. We are currently testing further digital solutions for British Sign Language interpreter connectivity within our jobcentre environment.
(b) Prevent calls from being cut off after long waiting periods
Regarding disconnections, while mobile phone contracts may disconnect after a certain time period, we do not intentionally cut off customers after long wait times. We do not have anything configured in our Contact Centre platform to automatically cut customers off after any time threshold, or period of waiting.
We do, however, inform customers when they are in a queue and we know their call won't be answered before the line closes, and request that they call back.
Asked by: Dan Aldridge (Labour - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of amending the Road Traffic Act 1991 to include the mandated reporting of cats that are (a) struck and (b) killed by vehicles.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
There are no plans to amend section 170 of the Road Traffic Act to make it mandatory for drivers to report road collisions involving cats.
Although there is no obligation to report all collisions with animals on roads,Rule 286 of The Highway Code advises drivers to report any collisions involving an animal to the police, and if possible, they should make enquiries to ascertain the owner of domestic animals and advise them of the situation.
Since June 2024, all cats in England over 20 weeks of age must be microchipped and registered on a compliant database, unless exempt or free-living. This will make it easier for National Highways and local authorities to reunite cats with their keepers.
Asked by: Dan Aldridge (Labour - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has any plans to introduce legislation requiring alcoholic beverages to display (a) full ingredient lists and (b) nutritional information in line with the labelling requirements for other food and drink products.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is mandatory for alcohol labels to state the product’s strength, namely alcohol by volume, and whether the product contains any of the 14 main allergens. There is also voluntary guidance on communicating the UK Chief Medical Officers' low risk drinking guidelines. There are no current plans to change mandatory labelling requirements on alcoholic products.
A National Institute for Health and Care Research-funded study on alcohol calorie labelling is underway to assess the impact of alcohol calorie labelling on product selection, purchasing, and consumption, which will report in 2026.
Asked by: Dan Aldridge (Labour - Weston-super-Mare)
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 help those with (a) severe health conditions and (b) disabilities complete the Personal Independence Payment application process.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department is regularly in contact with claimants who are vulnerable. Many, particularly those with severe heath conditions and disabilities, already have support in place from third parties (friends, relatives or appointees for example). However, for those who don’t, DWP provide a range of information and services to support customers through the application process.
Applications for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) are normally registered by telephone. To support hearing and speech impaired applicants, DWP uses the Video Relay Service to communicate in real time through a British Sign Language interpreter over a video connection. DWP also uses Relay UK, previously known as Next Generation Text, to correspond through typed messages via a BT agent.
DWP offers a claims completion service over the telephone to help PIP applicants without support from another source.
For the most vulnerable customers, support – including help with form completion – is offered through the Visiting Service:https://www.gov.uk/support-visit-benefit-claim
DWP has also produced a series of videos to support understanding of and navigation through each part of application and assessment: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/personal-independence-payment-customer-journey-films
Asked by: Dan Aldridge (Labour - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions her Department has had with training providers on the potential adoption of generative AI in education settings.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is building the evidence base for how generative artificial intelligence (AI) is best used in education and learning from the experience and expertise of the sector. As part of this work departmental officials have sought views and experiences from practitioners and training providers across all stages of education as well as the education technology sector and AI experts.
Departmental officials have also regularly met with representative bodies, such as the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), who represent training providers. On 1 February 2024, departmental officials met representative bodies at the AELP AI conference, to discuss AI related work programs.
In November 2023, the department published the response to the call for evidence on generative AI in education to understand more about sector views and early use of generative AI tools across schools, further education and higher education. The response is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/calls-for-evidence/generative-artificial-intelligence-in-education-call-for-evidence. In January 2024, the department published a report outlining educator and expert views on generative AI, which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/generative-ai-in-education-educator-and-expert-views.
The department is also a member of the cross-government AI working group and we are collaborating with peers across government to share thinking and expertise as we develop future policy.
Asked by: Dan Aldridge (Labour - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will commission research into the potential merits of the use of generative AI in apprenticeship provision.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is committed to supporting high quality apprenticeship training provision which supports employers and learners gain the skills they need for long-term success.
It is for training providers to choose how best to deliver apprenticeship training in order to equip learners with the knowledge, skills and behaviours set out in the apprenticeship standard, in consultation with the learner and employer. The department encourages providers to explore how they can use the latest technologies to enhance their offers.
The department will continue to work with experts to consider and respond to the implications of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies.
Asked by: Dan Aldridge (Labour - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the adequacy of the role of generative AI in apprenticeship provision.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is committed to supporting high quality apprenticeship training provision which supports employers and learners gain the skills they need for long-term success.
It is for training providers to choose how best to deliver apprenticeship training in order to equip learners with the knowledge, skills and behaviours set out in the apprenticeship standard, in consultation with the learner and employer. The department encourages providers to explore how they can use the latest technologies to enhance their offers.
The department will continue to work with experts to consider and respond to the implications of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies.