Asked by: Danny Beales (Labour - Uxbridge and South Ruislip)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of making crimes against wildlife notifiable offences.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government recognises the importance of tackling wildlife crime, which is why, along with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Home Office directly funds the National Wildlife Crime Unit to help tackle these crimes.
The National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) provides intelligence, analysis and investigative assistance to the police and other law enforcement agenciesacross the UK to support them in investigating wildlife crime. This includes supporting cases referred by Border Force to the National Crime Agency or to individual forces. The NWCU is also the UK policing focal point for EUROPOL and INTERPOL wildlife crime activity. The NWCU uses this information to produce strategic and tactical assessments of wildlife crime across the UK.
Any non-notifiable wildlife crime reported to police can still be investigated where appropriate, as Chief Constables have operational independence to tackle the crimes that matter most to their communities.
Asked by: Danny Beales (Labour - Uxbridge and South Ruislip)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing sentences for people convicted of assaulting public service workers .
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Sentencing in individual cases is a matter for our independent courts. Parliament has provided the courts with a broad range of sentencing powers to deal effectively and appropriately with offenders, including discharges, fines, community sentences, suspended sentences and custodial sentences.
The law is clear that where an assault is committed against those providing a public service, performing a public duty, or providing a service to the public this is to be considered by courts as an aggravating factor, increasing the seriousness of the offending. This applies to assaults committed against a wide range of workers. The statutory aggravating factor came into force on 28 June 2022.
Going forward, we will undertake a review of sentencing, to make sure that our framework is consistent, coherent, and cuts crime. We will use this review to develop a new long-term vision for sentencing which makes sense to victims and the wider public. The Lord Chancellor will announce more details of this review in due course.
Asked by: Danny Beales (Labour - Uxbridge and South Ruislip)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of levels of compliance of NHS Trusts with the NHS car parking guidance 2022.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Car Parking Guidance 2022 includes mandatory and voluntary elements. All trusts that charge for hospital car parking provide free car parking to in-need groups, and are therefore compliant with the mandatory element of the NHS Car Parking Guidance 2022.
NHS England strongly encourages all trusts to follow the voluntary element of the guidance, particularly that where hospital car parking charges do exist, they should be reasonable for the area.
Asked by: Danny Beales (Labour - Uxbridge and South Ruislip)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will hold discussions with the Competition and Markets Authority on trends in the level of car insurance premiums.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government is urgently exploring options to crack down on the spiralling cost of motor insurance and continues to engage with representatives of the motor insurance industry to understand the causes of increased premiums and identify potential solutions. We will announce the next steps in due course.
Asked by: Danny Beales (Labour - Uxbridge and South Ruislip)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will have discussions with the insurance industry on car insurance premiums.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government is urgently exploring options to crack down on the spiralling cost of motor insurance and continues to engage with representatives of the motor insurance industry to understand the causes of increased premiums and identify potential solutions. We will announce the next steps in due course.
Asked by: Danny Beales (Labour - Uxbridge and South Ruislip)
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 (a) adequacy of the provision of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder reviews by the NHS and (b) potential merits of commissioning a review of how these assessments are (i) performed and (ii) resourced.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are supporting NHS England in establishing a taskforce to look at attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) service provision, and its impact on patient experience. The taskforce will bring together expertise from across a broad range of sectors, including the National Health Service, education, and justice, to better understand the challenges affecting people with ADHD and to help provide a joined-up approach in response to concerns around rising demand.
Alongside the work of the taskforce, NHS England will continue to develop a national ADHD data improvement plan, carry out more detailed work to understand the provider and commissioning landscape, and capture examples from local health systems which are trialling innovative ways of delivering ADHD services to ensure best practice is captured and shared across the system.
Asked by: Danny Beales (Labour - Uxbridge and South Ruislip)
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 (a) help prevent the dairy-cattle H5N1 virus strain from (i) entering and (ii) spreading among the UK population and (b) prepare for potential outbreaks of that virus in UK cattle.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is in close contact with counterparts in the United States on the incidents of influenza of avian origin in cattle in the USA. We know that the strain of virus (Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) strain B3.13) involved has not been detected in the UK from our bulk milk testing and wider surveillance.
Defra is working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), the Food Standards Agency (FSA), the Cabinet Office and with international partners to consider the potential routes of incursion, evidence of animal-to-animal spread and risks of animal-to-human spillover and to reviewed our well-tested surveillance and preparedness activities to detect and respond to any infection of cattle from influenza of avian origin in the future.
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) has assessed the risk to livestock in Great Britain from this outbreak of Influenza A (H5N1) of avian origin in livestock in the USA, as very low (event is very rare but cannot be excluded) (Avian influenza in cattle in USA (publishing.service.gov.uk). The FSA have assessed the risk to UK consumers from HPAI strain B3.13 in imported milk, dairy products, colostrum and colostrum-based products originating from US dairy cattle as very low with medium uncertainty (Rapid Risk Assessment: Risk to UK consumers from Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N1 B3.13 in US dairy products | Food Standards Agency). The Human Animal Infections and Risk Surveillance group (HAIRS) consider that the HPAI B3.13 strain presents at most a very low risk with regard to spread from animals-to-humans in the UK HAIRS risk statement: Avian influenza A(H5N1) in livestock - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Defra has funded a research consortium at led by The Pirbright Institute and Imperial College to understand this unusual situation. In addition, we have published an Influenza A (H5N1) infection in mammals: suspect case definition and diagnostic testing criteria’ on gov.uk to support veterinary professionals and others in knowing when to report suspicion.