Asked by: David Taylor (Labour - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the supply of computer numerical control machines to Ukrainian defence companies.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Computer numerical control (CNC) machines enable the precise production of advanced components. We have not received requests for CNC systems in the last two years. The Ministry of Defence is not taking any steps to increase the number of systems to Ukraine as we have not provided these type of systems to Ukraine.
The Ministry of Defence has and continues to work closely with the Armed Forces of Ukraine to understand their specific requirements, this includes the provision of components and specific tools to enable production of systems and capabilities in Ukraine.
Asked by: David Taylor (Labour - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to increase the number of computer numerical control machines exported to Ukraine.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Computer numerical control (CNC) machines enable the precise production of advanced components. We have not received requests for CNC systems in the last two years. The Ministry of Defence is not taking any steps to increase the number of systems to Ukraine as we have not provided these type of systems to Ukraine.
The Ministry of Defence has and continues to work closely with the Armed Forces of Ukraine to understand their specific requirements, this includes the provision of components and specific tools to enable production of systems and capabilities in Ukraine.
Asked by: David Taylor (Labour - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of joint ventures between the UK and Ukrainian defence industries.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The UK recognises the need to develop strong defence industrial partnerships with Ukraine to accelerate and deepen UK and Ukrainian defence industrial capacity and capability, and to rebuild its defence industrial base.
Through Task Force HIRST, we actively encourage the development of partnerships and joint ventures between UK defence industry and local Ukrainian companies, and HMG has led five successful Trade Missions to Ukraine to bring together UK and Ukrainian Government and defence industry representatives, as well as international partners, to identify opportunities for developing sustainable, long-term cooperation and partnerships.
I recently led a trade mission of UK, Dutch and Norwegian firms to Ukraine in support of these and other aligned objectives.
Asked by: David Taylor (Labour - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has had discussions with the Scottish Government on the potential impact of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 on the number of walkers in Scotland.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
No, the Secretary of State has not had discussions with the Scottish Government on the potential impact of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 on the number of walkers in Scotland.
Asked by: David Taylor (Labour - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the potential impact of the public's right to roam on levels of (a) mental health, (b) obesity and (c) stress.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State has regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues on a range of issues, and Cabinet discussions are considered confidential.
The Government recognises the importance of providing access to the outdoors for people’s health and wellbeing and is working to ensure this is safe and appropriate. We will be working across Government departments to achieve this, including with the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC).
Defra is already working closely with DHSC, alongside other partners, in the delivery of the Green Social Prescribing programme which directly examines the impact of increased use of nature-based interventions and activities on participants’ health and wellbeing. The first phase of the programme ran from October 2020 - March 2023, achieving around 8,500 referrals and demonstrating statistically significant improvements in participants’ mental health.
Asked by: David Taylor (Labour - Hemel Hempstead)
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 extend the right to roam.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Our countryside and green spaces are a source of great national pride, and which boost public health and wellbeing, but too many across the country are left without access to the great outdoors. That is why the last Labour Government expanded public access by introducing the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, which provided the public a right of access to large areas of mountain, moor, heath, down, registered common land and coastal margin in England. We will be reviewing the maps of this open access land ahead of the statutory deadline of 1 January 2031, to ensure that the public have clear information which can help them to access this land.
The Government has decided to repeal the cut-off date which will save hundreds of miles of unregistered historic rights of way from the threat of extinguishment in 2031 ensuring that they can continue to be enjoyed by the public for years to come.
We are continuing to increase access to nature for families to enjoy, for example through our ambitious manifesto commitments to create nine new National River Walks, plant three new National Forests, and empower communities to create new parks and green spaces in their communities with a new Community Right to Buy.
We will announce further details on our plans for improving access to nature in due course.
Asked by: David Taylor (Labour - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the number of vape shops on high streets in Hertfordshire on the prosperity of those high streets.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The quality of the public realm and the prosperity of high streets and town centres is of vital importance. The Government is supporting local efforts to reduce vacancy on high streets, including through High Street Rental Auctions, because of the damaging effect persistently empty shops can have on the vitality of town centres.
The Government also recognises public sentiment about the value of some high street businesses will be mixed. Occupation of vacant units must in general be preferred to the alternative, including because of the benefits to high street footfall. The government encourages local partnership working between landlords, local government, businesses and residents to develop a unique vision for their high street. The planning system provides some tools to support these efforts, including the emphasis placed on local plans and diversification of primary shopping areas in the National Planning Policy Framework.
Asked by: David Taylor (Labour - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to make government digital services accessible to people without strong digital skills.
Answered by Feryal Clark
The Government Digital Service supports and incentivises departments to design digital services that are simple and easy to use. The Service Manual provides patterns to help departments design both online services for people with limited digital literacy and offline channels to support users, such as in person support at Post Offices for OneLogin.
Asked by: David Taylor (Labour - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to help tackle mould in (a) council and (b) housing association properties in Hertfordshire.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government is committed to working with social housing providers to ensure that homes are safe, decent, warm, and free from damp and mould.
The Deputy Prime Minister made a Written Ministerial Statement on 6 February (HCWS423) confirming that the government will be bringing Awaab’s Law into force for damp and mould in October 2025.
Awaab’s Law is vital legislation that will empower social tenants to hold their landlords to account using the full force of the law if they fail to investigate and fix hazards within their homes within set timescales. It will also allow tenants to access the Housing Ombudsman if their landlord does not adhere to strict timelines for action.
The government is also committed to consulting on a new Decent Homes Standard and Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards this year.
Asked by: David Taylor (Labour - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that the Child Maintenance Service takes action against people who are in arrears.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) will do everything within its powers to make sure parents comply and has made significant improvements to the process to speed up action when payments first break down and to target enforcement action more effectively.
Where parents fail to take responsibility for paying for their children, the CMS will not hesitate to use the full range of strong enforcement powers available. These include, using Enforcement Agents (previously known as bailiffs) to take control of goods, forcing the sale of property, removal of driving license or UK passport, deductions directly from earnings and bank accounts or even commitment to prison.
8% (£682.1 million) of the total maintenance due to be paid since the CMS began, remains to be collected through Collect & Pay but this is falling.
In the past year to September 2024, the CMS collected £16.8 million from paying parents with civil enforcement actions in process and an additional £5.4 million from paying parents with our most serious enforcement action in process.
In the twelve months to September 2024, there were 2,857 applications to the courts in England, Wales and Scotland for our most serious enforcement powers. Of these the courts issued two immediate prison sentences and 316 suspended prison sentences.