Asked by: Danny Beales (Labour - Uxbridge and South Ruislip)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate she has made of the cost to court infrastructure of implementing the Equality and Human Rights Commission's revised code of practice for services, public functions and associations.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
No such estimates have been produced. Any financial consequences from implementing the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s revised code of practice in HM Courts and Tribunals Service will be considered as part of the agency’s annual budgeting cycle.
Asked by: Danny Beales (Labour - Uxbridge and South Ruislip)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate she has made of the cost to courts of implementing the Equality and Human Rights Commission's revised code of practice for services, public functions and associations.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
No such estimates have been produced. Any financial consequences from implementing the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s revised code of practice in HM Courts and Tribunals Service will be considered as part of the agency’s annual budgeting cycle.
Asked by: Danny Beales (Labour - Uxbridge and South Ruislip)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate she has made of the potential legal costs for her Department of implementing the proposed EHRC Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions, and Associations.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
No such estimates have been produced. Any financial implications of implementing the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s revised Code of Practice at MoJ HQ will be considered as part of the Department’s annual budgeting process.
Asked by: Danny Beales (Labour - Uxbridge and South Ruislip)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate she has made of the cost to prisons of implementing the Equality and Human Rights Commission's revised code of practice for services, public functions and associations.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
No such estimates have been produced. Any financial consequences from implementing the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s revised code of practice in prisons will be considered as part of HM Prison and Probation Service’s annual budgeting cycle.
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 steps he is taking to update the existing regulations on (a) composition, (b) marketing and (c) labelling of commercial infant and toddler foods to ensure products are suitably nutritious.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Children’s early years provide an important foundation for their future health and strongly influences many aspects of wellbeing in later life.
It is vital that we maintain the highest standards for foods consumed by babies and infants, which is why we have regulations in place that set nutritional and compositional standards for commercial baby food. The regulations also set labelling standards to ensure consumers have clear and accurate information about the products they buy. We continue to keep these regulations under review to ensure they reflect the latest scientific and dietary guidelines.
Asked by: Danny Beales (Labour - Uxbridge and South Ruislip)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, which departments are contributing to ensuring that the distinct needs of young people are reflected in the development of the cross-governmental homelessness strategy.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Homelessness levels are far too high. This can have a devastating impact on those affected, including young people.
We must address this and deliver long term solutions. The Deputy Prime Minister is leading cross-government work to deliver the long-term solutions we need to get us back on track to ending all forms of homelessness. This includes chairing a dedicated Inter-Ministerial Group, bringing together ministers from across government to develop a long-term strategy.
We have also established an Expert Group to bring together representatives from across the homelessness and rough sleeping sector, local and combined authorities and wider experts. The role of this expert group is to provide knowledge, analysis and challenge to help Government understand what is working well nationally and locally and where improvements are needed. We will continue to meet with a range of stakeholders, including mayors and MPs, to make sure the strategy is informed by a range of expertise.
As well as work on the Inter-Ministerial Group and Expert Group we are also working closely with the sector to deliver a number of lived experience forums to ensure that the voices of those with lived experience are reflected in the homelessness strategy.
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 progress his Department has made on the trail hunting consultation; and if he will an assessment of the potential merits of (a) reviewing current exemptions within the Hunting Act to prevent exploitation, (b) introducing stronger deterrents to illegal hunting, and (c) enhancing protections for (i) deer and (ii) other wildlife from being hunted with dogs.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England and Wales only.
This government was elected on a mandate to introduce the most ambitious plans in a generation to improve animal welfare and that is exactly what we will do. As part of this, we are committed to banning trail hunting. Work to determine the best approach for doing so is ongoing. Further details will be set out on due course.
The Hunting Act 2004 makes it an offence to hunt a wild mammal with dogs, except where it is carried out in accordance with the exemptions in the Act.
Enforcement of the Hunting Act is an operational matter for the police.
Asked by: Danny Beales (Labour - Uxbridge and South Ruislip)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of including longer-term funding settlements for homelessness services in the (a) Comprehensive Spending Review and (b) Homelessness Strategy.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Future funding for homelessness services is subject to the outcome of phase 2 of the Spending Review.
Councils can also draw from the wider local government finance settlement to help meet homelessness costs. We know that the sector has long called for long-term certainty on its budgets. That is why the government is committed to providing a multi-year funding settlement starting in 2026-27.
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, if he will set a timeline for publishing a consultation on the introduction of licensing regulations for animal sanctuaries and rehoming organisations.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government was elected on a mandate to introduce the most ambitious plans to improve animal welfare in a generation. The Department has initiated a series of meetings with key animal welfare stakeholders as part of the development of an overarching approach to animal welfare. We will be outlining more detail of our plans in due course.
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 his Department is taking to improve the regulation of wastewater treatment processes to reduce the levels of (a) pharmaceuticals, (b) microplastics and (c) per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances entering the (i) environment and (ii) food chain.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency works with the water industry on the Chemicals Investigation Programme (CIP). This is funded through the water industry price review and considers chemicals in sewage effluent, including some pharmaceuticals and Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The fourth CIP has just started.
Regulation does not currently cover microplastics from treated wastewater. 99% of microplastics are removed by sewage treatment processes. The EA and water industry are commencing six investigations under CIP considering generation of microplastics within wastewater treatment works through attrition of plastic equipment, emerging sewage treatment technologies and path of microplastics from biosolids applied to land to soils and groundwater.
The EA sits on the Pharmaceuticals in the Environment Group. Pharmaceuticals are not required to undergo an environmental impact assessment, but a few have ecotoxicological thresholds that inform an assessment of potential risk. The EA Is currently investigating potential ecological risks of mixtures of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment.
CIP4 is looking at PFAS from wastewater treatment works. CIP2 identified domestic sewage as a significant source of PFAS. On-going work includes identifying sources of or Perfluorooctanesulfonic Acid (PFOS), a type of PFAS, in catchments to inform approaches to permitting discharges, and to reduce/eliminate PFOS at source.