Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to facilitate equal access to paediatric interventional radiology services.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
The Department will discuss these issues with NHS England. National Health Service trusts are expected to have the relevant policies in place, in line with service specification and commissioning guidance produced by NHS England.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to expand national capacity for paediatric interventional radiology training.
Answered by Will Quince
As of January 2023, there were 1,584 full-time equivalent (FTE) trainee doctors working in clinical radiology services in the NHS in England. This is an increase of 274 (20.9%) since 2020.
The Government funded an additional 20 Specialty Training posts for interventional radiologists in 2021/22 and 2022/23. These increases have expanded the number of radiologists who can train to deliver paediatric interventional radiology.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that the Major Conditions Strategy includes policies on bowel cancer patients.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
The Major Conditions Strategy will draw on previous work on cancer, including over 5,000 submissions provided to the Department as part of our Call for Evidence last year. Many of those submissions will have included feedback on bowel cancer. We will continue to work closely with stakeholders, citizens and the National Health Service in coming weeks to identify actions for the Strategy that will have the most impact.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he will meet with representatives from The Royal College of Radiologists to discuss the findings and recommendations of their paediatric interventional radiology report.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
I would be pleased to meet The Royal College of Radiologists to discuss their recent report into paediatric interventional radiology.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
Whether she is taking steps with Cabinet colleagues to ensure the availability of synthetic and sustainable fuels for use in motorsport.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Opposition Chief Whip (Commons)
The Government welcomes the moves of the motorsport sector, including Formula 1, to develop, and make widely available, more advanced sustainable fuels. Formula 1 and the British motorsport industry has a great history of technological innovations which can have an enormous impact beyond the racetrack. Motorsport’s work to develop 100% sustainable fuels stands to benefit the global transport sector, and help our drive towards net zero.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, if he will take steps to support a bid for a round of the World Rally Championship series to be hosted in Northern Ireland in 2024.
Answered by Steve Baker
Northern Ireland is a fantastic place to host international events, but tourism is devolved in Northern Ireland and therefore this is not something within the control of the Northern Ireland Office.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what information his Department holds on the value of compensation awarded under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme in each financial year since 2018-19.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The overall cost of compensation awarded by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme for the years in question can be found in its Annual Reports and Accounts, which are published here: https://www.fscs.org.uk/industry-resources/annual-report-archive/ and https://www.fscs.org.uk/news/fscs-news/annual-report/.
In 2021/22, the last year for which numbers have been published, the cost was £584 million.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will provide a breakdown of the roles undertaken by the 167 FTE staff employed by HS2 Ltd in its Communications and Stakeholder Engagement Directorate.
Answered by Huw Merriman
The majority of staff are engaged on community engagement activities along the 200 mile HS2 route, and the number of staff employed in the Directorate and handling all HS2 communication and engagement activity is a very small proportion of the 30,000 people now working on the HS2 project.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the value for money of HS2 Ltd's £8,086,998 annual spend on communications and community engagement.
Answered by Huw Merriman
An estimated 2.4 million people live within five miles of the HS2 route in rural areas, and within one mile in urban areas, across 58 local authorities and 75 parliamentary constituencies. Specialist teams in HS2 Ltd engage with communities and stakeholders across 200 miles of the proposed route to help ensure that there is a level of understanding and transparency around the impacts of construction on those affected. Similarly, HS2 Ltd’s 24-hour Helpdesk responds to around 30,000 enquiries a year, and the HS2 website (www.hs2.org.uk) received over 1.9 million visits in 2022.
The Department for Transport monitors all HS2 Ltd expenditure in order to ensure value for money for the taxpayer.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of reports that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps allegedly supplied surface-to-air missiles to the Polisario Front.
Answered by David Rutley
The UK condemns the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) destabilising activity, including its weapon proliferation to non-state actors, wherever it occurs. The UK maintains a range of sanctions that work to constrain the activities of the IRGC, which itself is sanctioned in its entirety. We strongly support the work of Staffan de Mistura as Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Western Sahara and continue to urge the parties to avoid further escalation and swiftly re-engage with the UN-led political process, including a return to a ceasefire.