Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 13 January 2025 to Question 22602 on Coronavirus: Vaccination, for what reason the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency does not intend to publish this information.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne

It is routine practice for regulatory authorities to ask developers of new medicines and vaccines technical questions based on their data submissions. These technical questions can cover a range of issues, including commercially confidential issues such as manufacturing methods, and they are not published.

The final outcome of the assessment, including the comprehensive summary of the evidence for quality, safety and efficacy, is published in the form of a Public Assessment Report, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/regulatory-approval-of-pfizer-biontech-vaccine-for-covid-19/summary-public-assessment-report-for-pfizerbiontech-covid-19-vaccine

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 adequacy of planning protections afforded to Local Wildlife Sites in the in the update to the National Planning Policy Framework.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The powers secured through the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 would allow Strategic Environmental Assessment and Environmental Impact Assessment to be replaced with a new framework of Environmental Outcomes Reports.

The government is committed to securing better environmental outcomes alongside securing the development we need and will consider how best to reform environmental assessment with this objective in mind. Alongside, reforming building regulations, we will carefully consider how Environmental Outcomes Reports can be used to support our wider carbon reduction targets. In the meantime, the current legislation on environmental assessment and its supporting guidance continues to apply.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to ensure biodiversity net gain is not used to override protections afforded to Local Wildlife Sites and other designated nature sites.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Development is restricted on sites which are designated for environmental or amenity value, and the National Planning Policy Framework requires local plans to identify, map and safeguard components of local wildlife-rich habitats and wider ecological networks, including the hierarchy of international, national and locally designated sites of importance for biodiversity.

Biodiversity Net Gain is additional to these protections for nature and only required on new development that needs planning permission, therefore only applying on designated nature sites in the very limited circumstances where such development is permitted.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether her Department provides guidance to chief executives of local authorities on attending meetings with Rt hon. and hon. Members.

Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The department does not issue such guidance. Councils are independent, democratic bodies accountable to the communities they serve.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 20 January 2025 to Question 23741 on Coronavirus: Vaccination, for what reason the MHRA has temporarily withdrawn the collection of minutes from the Commission on Human Medicines' Vaccine Benefit Risk Expert Working Group (meetings between 25 August 2020 and 5 May 2023).

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

To ensure the accuracy of redactions within the minutes in question the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has temporarily withdrawn the meeting minutes of the Vaccine Benefit Risk Expert Working Group to ensure accurate and transparent records.

The MHRA anticipates republishing all minutes as soon as possible.

For further transparency, when the minutes are republished, an alert will be sent to all subscribers who have registered for updates to the GOV.UK website for content of this type. I have also asked the rt hon member is alerted.

Found: schedule (Standing Order No. 68) Chairs: Peter Dowd Clive Efford Sir Roger Gale Carolyn Harris Esther McVey