Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jane Ellison and David Burrowes

Tuesday 28th February 2017 Commons Chamber

[Jane Ellison]

I am well aware of the sensitivities around the duty bands, on which we have received a number of representations, and of the renaissance not just in the industry to which the right hon. Gentleman refers but, for example, in respect of the number of microbreweries and the flourishing investment in that area. There have been a number of good news stories in this sector in recent years.

[Mr David Burrowes (Enfield, Southgate) (Con)]

24. The Minister has also received representations about a wholly different kind of cider that has not seen much of a real apple, and that is super-strength white cider, which is very harmful and cheap. Will she consider using the new freedoms following Brexit that will enable the Government to take seriously the evidence in favour of a minimum unit price of alcohol, given its consequences for the health of young and vulnerable people?

[Jane Ellison]

I am extremely well aware of the points my hon. Friend makes, not least, as I say, because of the role I last held in government. We look carefully at all these things, particularly the issue of white cider.

Serious Crime Bill [Lords]

Debate between Jane Ellison and David Burrowes

Monday 23rd February 2015 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Jane Ellison)]

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate, and I will try to do so relatively briefly in order to allow more Back-Bench contributions. New clause 1, which stands in the name of my hon. Friend the Member for Congleton (Fiona Bruce), and new clause 25, which stands in the name of the hon. Member for Stockport (Ann Coffey), both relate to the very important matter of addressing the abhorrent practice of sex-selective abortion.

The Government have been consistently clear that abortion on the grounds of gender alone is already illegal. The Department of Health repeated that in guidance issued in May 2014, and it is important to stress that all independent sector providers have agreed to comply with, and operate on the basis of, the Department’s guidance and that they must do so as part of their licensing conditions. The Care Quality Commission monitors compliance with that, including through its inspection visits.

[Mr Burrowes]

On the welcome guidance that was published, I understand from freedom of information requests, and from an e-mail sent on 21 January, that there was a request for joint badging of that guidance to ensure that all the stakeholders signed up to it. Why did that not happen? Why was it left only to the Department to publish it?

Human Fertilisation and Embryology

Debate between Jane Ellison and David Burrowes

Tuesday 3rd February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Jane Ellison]

I am aware of that work, which has been the subject of extensive parliamentary questions. The expert panel considered all of those issues, including that piece of work, during the course of their deliberations.

[Mr David Burrowes (Enfield, Southgate) (Con)]

Does the Minister acknowledge that scientists broadly accept that the procedures are nuclear cell transfer? That is what regulations 4 and 7 make clear. That means that nuclear DNA in the egg is explicitly altered. Therefore one has to agree that an honest, clear definition of what we are dealing with is genetic modification.

[Jane Ellison]

No, I cannot accept that description. I recognise that my hon. Friend has objections to the procedure, but I do not recognise his description. Nuclear DNA is not affected; mitochondrial DNA is different.

As well as paying tribute to the scientists at Newcastle university, I want to pay tribute to the Lily Foundation, a charity founded by families who have lost their children to serious mitochondrial disease, and who have shown us the human suffering behind this scientific advance. Many right hon. and hon. Members, like me, have constituents who are affected, and I am sure that some Members will talk about such families in their own speeches.