Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to encourage other donors to provide aid to Sudan.

Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The UK is doing all it can to raise the profile of the crisis in Sudan and to encourage other donors to commit funding. In April, at the Sudan London Conference, the Foreign Secretary announced £120 million of new life-saving aid which we anticipate will reach over 650,000 people. Whilst the Conference was not a pledging event we were nonetheless encouraged that other states followed suit with the more than £800 million pledged towards lifesaving operations. Further, we are also working on possible joint funding initiatives with other donors. Whilst funding is important, without a fundamental improvement in access for humanitarian agencies, the required levels of aid cannot be delivered and civilians will continue to bear the brunt of the conflict.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to provide multi-year funding for (a) children's and (b) adult hospices through the forthcoming NHS 10 Year Plan.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

We want a society where every person receives high-quality, compassionate care from diagnosis through to the end of life. The Government is determined to shift more healthcare out of hospitals and into the community, to ensure patients and their families receive personalised care in the most appropriate setting, and palliative and end of life care services, including hospices, will have a big role to play in that shift.

The 10-Year Health Plan sets out how the Government will fix our broken National Health Service. Too many people towards the end of their lives are not receiving the support and care they deserve. We are determined to change that, by changing the way services operate, rather than by simply funding more of the same.

The plan draws directly from the extensive engagement we have undertaken with the public, patients, staff, and representatives from the palliative care and end-of-life care sector, including those working in the hospice sector. The 10-Year Health Plan reflects the Department’s Spending Review settlement.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to review the (a) permitting and (b) waste exemption regime under the (i) Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 and (ii) Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 in relation to small-scale textile manufacturing facilities that (A) want to recycle waste from every part of the manufacturing process and (B) require longer than 12 months to safely store material for sustainable manufacturing purposes.

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

The Government recently announced plans to reform the waste permit exemptions regime. We will remove three exemptions and tighten the conditions of seven others which have long caused problems and been abused. We will also introduce greater record keeping requirements for all waste exemption holders and impose limits and controls on how exemptions can be managed at one site.

Plans to tighten up the regulation of those who transport and manage waste services were also announced, moving them from a light-touch registration system into environmental permitting. This will give the Environment Agency a greater range of powers and more resources to be able to take action against those operating illegally.

The Government believes that small scale manufacturing facilities have an important role to play as we move to a circular economy. However, activities carried out under a waste exemption should be low-risk and small-scale and it is right that the throughputs and storage limits for exemptions do not exceed those of standard rules and bespoke environmental permits. Operators who wish to carry out larger scale operations that come with a heightened risk of, for example fire, should operate under an environmental permit.

Found: The debate will be led by Harpreet Uppal MP.