Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, on what dates which Ministers visited Teesworks since the 2019 General Election.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The location of all Government Ministerial visits since 2019 is not centrally held.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the potential risks of deepfake (a) audio, (b) photo and (c) video content to the conduct of future UK general elections.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government is committed to ensuring that people have access to accurate information. We are taking steps to promote trusted news sources to tackle the spread of disinformation and combat attempts to artificially manipulate the information environment. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology Counter Disinformation Unit responds to periods of acute disinformation risk, including UK general elections.
The Government regularly meets with a range of social media platforms to aid our understanding of the spread of misinformation and disinformation on their services, including artificially manipulated media, and the range of steps they are taking to address this. This work includes encouraging platforms to ensure that their Terms of Service (ToS), policies and enforcement are fit for purpose, whilst still respecting freedom of expression.
The National Security Bill will give the UK more tools to tackle these threats, including a new offence of foreign interference. The foreign interference offence is a priority offence in the Online Safety Bill and as such will require digital platforms to proactively take action against a wide range of state-sponsored disinformation and state-linked online interference, including digitally manipulated content where this has the aim of interfering with UK elections.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an impact assessment of the change to the National Clinical Impact Awards on academic medical doctors who are not employed under the NHS consultant contract.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government has not undertaken a specific impact assessment of the change to the National Clinical Impact Awards (NCIA) scheme on academic medical doctors who are not employed under the National Health Service consultant contract. Clinical academics and academic general practitioners remain eligible to apply for awards, providing they meet the minimum eligibility criteria set out in the NCIA guidance and are employed on the equivalent academic contracts.
An equality impact assessment was conducted ahead of the reforms in 2022, and is available at the following link:
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the statutory guidance provided to schools on the costs of school uniforms.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The statutory guidance on the cost of school uniforms came into force in September 2022. The Department is assessing the effect of the guidance through continued engagement with key stakeholders, including via correspondence received by the Department from parents, head teachers, and uniform suppliers.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of dentists not currently providing NHS services who could do so following the changes he is seeking to make to the dental contracts in (a) Bristol and (b) the South West.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
No estimate has been made.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on which dates he has met with the British Medical Association to discuss preventing strike action since his appointment on 25 October 2022.
Answered by Will Quince
My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, met the British Medical Association on 12 January 2023. He and I also met the BMA on 2 March, 22 March and 27 March 2023. These meetings included discussion on preventing strike action as part of wider conversations on pay and conditions.
The Government and the BMA Junior Doctors Committee held a constructive discussion on 2 May, in preparation for talks aimed at resolving the current junior doctors dispute.
While these talks are ongoing, we will not provide a running commentary.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate of the (a) median and (b) mean processing times for (i) registration and (ii) naturalisation applications in each year from 2017 to 2022.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office publishes data on naturalisation and registration applications made and completed every quarter on the Gov.UK website. This includes performance against the six-month service standard for completing applications. The most recent data set was published on 23 February 2023 and can be found here:
Visas and citizenship data: Q4 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of amending the classification of tricycles in the Electrically Assisted Pedal Cycles (Amendment) Regulations 2015 to account for the need for greater motor wattage for tricycles when climbing hills.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Second Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, published in July 2022, reaffirmed the Department’s commitment to making walking, wheeling and cycling the natural choice for millions more journeys. Equal access for disabled people is at the heart of this and the Department is keeping the prospect of changes to regulations on electric cycles, including tricycles, under review.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on which dates he met the Royal College of Nursing to discuss strike action since his appointment.
Answered by Will Quince
Since his appointment on 25 October 2022, my Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, met the Royal College of Nursing to discuss strike action on the following dates: 10 and 15 November 2022, 12 December 2022, 9 and 12 January 2023, 22, 23, 24, 27 and 28 February 2023 and 7, 8, 9, 14, 15 and 16 March 2023.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has taken recent steps to encourage doctors to prescribe gluten-free (a) foodstuffs and (b) other products for people diagnosed with coeliac disease.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Decisions about prescribing rest with the general practitioner or other prescriber who has clinical responsibility for a patient’s care, taking into account relevant clinical guidance. It is not appropriate for Ministers to influence individual prescribing decisions.
The information on how many integrated care boards support prescriptions for gluten free and other products for people diagnosed with coeliac disease is not held centrally.