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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has had recent discussions with his EU counterparts on UK legislation on gene-editing.

Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

This is a devolved matter, and the information provided therefore relates to England only.

The Government is introducing legislation to enact the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 for plants and food and feed before the end of March.

The European Commission has published a proposal that is similar in aim to the Precision Breeding Act. The department is monitoring progress on the EU’s regulatory proposal closely and engaging with the European Commission when appropriate.

Officials have met with EU counterparts several times to discuss England’s approach to precision breeding and the EU’s proposal on new genomic techniques, including through the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Committee and through the UK-EU Joint Consultative Working Group Agri-food structured group.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what his policy is on aligning gene-editing legislation with that of the European Union.

Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

This is a devolved matter, and the information provided therefore relates to England only.

The Government is introducing legislation to enact the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 for plants and food and feed before the end of March.

The European Commission has published a proposal that is similar in aim to the Precision Breeding Act. The department is monitoring progress on the EU’s regulatory proposal closely and engaging with the European Commission when appropriate.

Officials have met with EU counterparts several times to discuss England’s approach to precision breeding and the EU’s proposal on new genomic techniques, including through the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Committee and through the UK-EU Joint Consultative Working Group Agri-food structured group.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to meet its target of 16.5% tree cover by 2050.

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

We are making progress towards the statutory target to reach 16.5% tree and woodland cover in England by 2050. The Government has pledged up to £400 million for tree planting and peatland restoration over the current and next financial year. As part of that we will create new woodland including national forests to bring communities and woodlands closer together and to create new green jobs. The Government has launched a Tree Planting Taskforce to support our plans to plant millions more trees.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to plant trees alongside roads.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department is not currently taking any specific steps with regards to tree planting as this a matter for National Highways and local highway authorities (for the strategic road network and local roads respectively).

The Department does, however, encourage local highway authorities to recognise the contribution that trees make to the economic, social and environmental well-being of communities, while National Highways is, as part of its efforts to deliver on environmental goals and achieve Net Zero Targets, aiming to plant at least 3 million trees by 2030 (in addition to the trees planted as ‘essential mitigation’ for projects) to provide landscape and biodiversity benefits and help lock up carbon.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of amending the Highways Act 1980 to increase roadside trees planting.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department does not have plans to amend the Highways Act 1980 on this particular topic. The Department does, however, encourage local highway authorities to recognise the contribution that trees make to the economic, social and environmental well-being of communities, while National Highways is, as part of its efforts to deliver on environmental goals and achieve Net Zero Targets, aiming to plant at least 3 million trees by 2030 (in addition to the trees planted as ‘essential mitigation’ for projects), to provide landscape and biodiversity benefits and help lock up carbon.

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 ensure that children can access cannabinoid medications through the NHS; and what assessment he has made of trends in the level of families using non-prescribed cannabis to treat their children.

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

No assessment has been made on the trends in the level of families using non-prescription cannabis to treat children. Cannabis is a class B drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and the unlawful supply carries a maximum sentence of up to 14 years in prison, a fine, or both, while unlawful possession is up to five years in prison, a fine, or both.

Like all medicines, prescribing on the National Health Service is restricted to products which have been proven safe and effective. Licensed cannabis-based medicines are routinely funded by the NHS where there is clear evidence of their quality, safety, and effectiveness. Epidyolex is used for the treatment of seizures associated with two rare forms of epilepsy, namely Dravet syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, and tuberous sclerosis complex. However, clinical guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence demonstrate a clear need for more evidence on the safety and effectiveness of unlicensed cannabis-based medicines to support routine prescribing and funding decisions in the NHS.

NHS England and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) have agreed funding for two trials relating to the use of cannabis-based medicines for the treatment of difficult-to-treat epilepsies. These will be world-first trials and will be crucial in informing future NHS funding decisions.

Manufacturers are responsible for generating evidence to support the use of their products and for seeking regulatory approval. The Government encourages manufacturers to do so and offers scientific and research advice from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and the NIHR.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to reduce waiting times for resolutions to missed child maintenance payments.

Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) will do everything it can to address the nonpayment of child maintenance and reduce waiting times for missed payments. We use our enforcement powers fairly and quickly to get cases back into payment.

These powers include deductions from earnings orders, removal of driving licenses, disqualification from holding a passport, and committal to prison. The CMS has also introduced powers to deduct child maintenance directly from a wider range of bank accounts and can apply for a liability order. A liability order legally recognizes the debt and is required before the CMS can take certain enforcement actions against non-compliant parents to enforce those arrears.

Following the Child Support (Enforcement) Act 2023 receiving royal assent in July 2023, secondary legislation is required to bring into force existing powers that allow the CMS to make an administrative liability order against a person who has failed to pay child maintenance and is in arrears.

The administrative liability order will replace the current requirement for the CMS to apply to the court for a liability order, which can take up to 22 weeks. Introducing a simpler administrative process will enable the CMS to take faster action against parents who actively avoid their responsibilities and will get money to children more quickly. We expect the new liability order process to take around six to eight weeks, allowing for delays.