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 make an assessment of the potential impact of the Glis Glis (edible dormouse) on (a) indigenous species and (b) property; and whether he plans to take steps to reduce this impact.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

An assessment of the risk of edible dormouse (Glis Glis) published by the Great Britain Non-Native Species Secretariat identified that there were potential impacts of edible dormouse on native species of hole nesting birds and on trees. It also identified a risk of damage to property. Full details are available here: https://www.nonnativespecies.org/assets/Uploads/RSS_RA_Glis_glis.pdf

To manage the impacts of this species, Defra plans to introduce a new action and capital item under the Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT) offer, under the Environmental Land Management Schemes. The addition of these items will support the management of edible dormouse in England. We plan to announce more details on the expanded CSHT offer this month.

Additionally, the species is listed under Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Country Act 1981. As such it is an offence to release or to allow the escape of this species into the wild.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when she plans to publish the independent review of her Department’s language services.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

We have been considering the findings of the independent review to help inform the development of new tender specifications. This is a complex process and covers a wide range of agencies within the Ministry of Justice. Once all internal governance has been completed the review will be released, we expect to publish the outcome by 31 December 2024.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to ensure the adequacy of services provided by interpreters to her Department.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Ministry of Justice operates a robust performance and quality regime for these services. Interpreter fulfilment of bookings is the service provided by suppliers under contract, and their performance is managed through contract management. The quality regime includes ensuring that interpreters on the Ministry of Justice register are qualified and security vetted, a rolling programme of spot checks on interpreters to ensure that they are meeting the quality requirements, and a complaints process that will direct quality assessment checks to interpreters that are subject to a complaint.

The suppliers forecast demand, and work to ensure that there is a pool of qualified interpreters available to the Ministry of Justice to fulfil our bookings.

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 replacing external (a) translation and (b) interpretation services provided to her Department with services provided by departmental staff.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Ministry of Justice considered the potential for bringing the service fully or partially in-house when assessing its options. The outcome of the assessment indicated an outsourced model continued to be the best value for taxpayers’ money, taking account of quality, deliverability, and cost.

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 support NHS Trusts to speed up access to innovative therapies before MHRA approval through Early Access Programmes.

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

NHS England has issued national policy guidelines on free of charge schemes, which are available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/free-of-charge-foc-medicines-schemes-national-policy-recommendations-for-local-systems/

The only free of charge schemes supported by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and NHS England are those through the Early Access to Medicines Scheme. Other, company led early access programmes operate under the unlicensed medicines scheme, but these are not approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, nor supported by NHS England nationally. Participation in such programmes is decided at an individual National Health Service trust level, in the form of an agreement between the trust and a pharmaceutical company.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to reduce (a) delays and (b) complexities in obtaining the necessary information to purchase additional years of National Insurance contributions to maximise their state pension (a) faced by women and (b) generally.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

To support customers, HMRC and DWP enhanced the online Check your State Pension forecast service in April 2024. New functionality enables the majority of working age customers to self-serve by viewing their State Pension forecast, see payable gaps and make payments online.

The Future Pensions Centre and the National Insurance helpline remain in place for customers who are unable to use the online service, as well as customers who prefer that route or who need additional assistance.

Both departments are putting in place measures to manage the expected demand in the run-up to the 5 April 2025 deadline, including managing the deployment of resources, the use of callbacks, digitising and improving forms for overseas individuals, interactive voice response messaging and directing customers to the digital service.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients were in receipt of Givinostat through the Early Access Programme on 10 December 2024; and if he will make an assessment of the potential barriers to accessing the Early Access Programme by patients.

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

The information on how many patients were in receipt of givinostat through the Early Access Programme (EAP) on 10 December 2024 is not held centrally, as the scheme was set up by the manufacturer.

We have made no assessment of access to the EAP for givinostat, which must be through one of the 23 NorthStar Centres in the United Kingdom. However, participation in the EAP is decided at an individual National Health Service trust level, and a North Star Centre will not be able to provide givinostat if its local trust has not approved participation. Under the EAP, givinostat is free to both patients taking part in it and to the NHS, but the NHS trusts must still cover the cost of administering it to patients. Only Duchenne muscular dystrophy clinicians can make requests for givinostat for their patients. Decisions are made on a case-by-case basis for individual named patients aligned to the eligibility criteria.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of NICE methodology in appraising innovative medicines for licensed for Alzheimer's Disease.

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

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is responsible for the methods and processes it uses to develop recommendations on whether new medicines represent a clinically and cost-effective use of National Health Service resources. The NICE develops those methods and processes independently and in consultation with stakeholders.

The NICE keeps its methods and processes under review to ensure that they are fit for purpose and are appropriate to emerging new treatments, and has a Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Lab that enables the NICE to develop creative solutions to complex problems in HTA. The HTA Lab produced a report in November 2023 on issues and challenges in the evaluation of disease-modifying dementia treatments. The report concluded that the NICE’s current approach and methods are considered appropriate for evaluating these treatments.

The NICE has recently consulted on its draft guidance on the use of two new disease-modifying treatments for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. The NICE’s guidance says that the benefits of these treatments are too small to justify the significant cost to the NHS. These are very difficult decisions to make, and it is right that they are taken independently on the basis of the available evidence of costs and benefits.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the New Hospital Programme review, when the (a) options and (b) recommendations for the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading will be published; and when he plans to announce which hospitals will be prioritised.

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

The new hospital scheme for the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust at the Royal Berkshire Hospital is in the scope of the review into the New Hospital Programme.

We are finalising the outcome of the review so we can be honest and upfront with everyone on when we expect the new hospitals to be delivered.

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care will set out further details on the outcome of the review, which will include a new and realistic delivery schedule for the programme, at the earliest opportunity.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that Christmas toys sold through online retailers are safe.

Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

Government is committed to ensuring that only safe products can be sold. Under the Toys (Safety) Regulations 2011, all toys placed on the market must meet essential safety requirements.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards runs the national Online Marketplaces Programme, to reduce the risk of non-compliant products sold online. Through monitoring marketplaces, including purchasing and testing products, we assess the prevalence of unsafe toys and take appropriate enforcement action.

While regulations are clear that toys must be safe, the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill will enable regulations to be updated to better reflect modern online supply chains.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the level of financial support provided to (a) the River and Rowing museum in Henley-on-Thames and (b) other museums outside London.

Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

We have made no such specific assessment about the River and Rowing museum, but we are keen to see museums outside London flourish. Funding is tight, but DCMS oversees the £86m Museum Estate and Development Fund (MEND), which invests in museum infrastructure nationally and the Chancellor announced a package of new cultural infrastructure funding at the Autumn Budget, to build on existing capital schemes. The Budget also recommitted to the cultural tax reliefs, which provide important revenue support for museums and arts organisations.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 1 November 2024 to Question 11126 on National Landscapes: Environment Protection, what steps the Government is taking to make National Landscapes wilder and greener.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

This Government is committed to making Protected Landscapes greener, wilder and more accessible. We have just announced our intent to strengthen legislation, when parliamentary time allows, and this will form part of a wider package of tools and resourcing. We look forward to developing this package with our partners. We are also publishing new guidance for relevant authorities to make expectations clear in relation to their duty to seek to further the purposes of Protected Landscapes.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 26 November 2024 to Question 14870 on National Landscapes and with reference to section 245 of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023, for what reason that Answer states that local authorities should have regard to rather than seek to further the purposes of national landscapes.

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

I refer the hon. Member to the answer, as corrected, given to Question UIN 14870 on 26 November 2024.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps is he taking to ensure that all villages are included the rollout of broadband infrastructure.

Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Government is committed to the rollout of fast, reliable broadband to all parts of the UK. So far we have over 30 Project Gigabit contracts in place, filling in gaps that are not being met commercially, predominantly in rural areas. This includes a contract across South Oxfordshire which will provide approximately 3,500 premises in the Henley and Thame constituency with access to gigabit-capable broadband.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to extend Start for Life and Family Hub funding to include Oxfordshire.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Prime Minister’s Plan for Change outlined that there will be investment to continue to build up the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme. In 2025/26, this investment will fund the 75 local authorities in England with high levels of deprivation that are part of the existing programme.

Family Hubs funding is the responsibility of the Department for Education, with Start for Life funding sitting with the Department of Health and Social Care. Due to the challenging fiscal context, we have had to make difficult decisions for 2025/26, and only those areas currently in the scheme will receive funding. We will continue to evaluate the programme and assess evidence to support wider rollout in future financial years.

Afghan women and girls

Protecting children from sexual abuse

Bowel Cancer UK report into NHS services

Triple negative breast cancer