Asked by: Joe Powell (Labour - Kensington and Bayswater)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to help protect people online.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
In line with our Safer Streets Mission, the Online Safety Act brings much needed protections to the online world by protecting children from harmful and age-inappropriate content, tackling violence against women and girls, and taking down criminal activity. The new laws apply to search services and all companies that allow users to share and post content online or interact with each other, even if the companies providing them are outside the UK.
Asked by: Joe Powell (Labour - Kensington and Bayswater)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when her Department plans to respond to the consultation entitled Modern leasehold: restricting ground rent for existing leases which closed on 17 January 2024.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Over the course of this Parliament, the Government will further reform the leasehold system. We will enact remaining Law Commission recommendations relating to enfranchisement and the Right to Manage, tackle unregulated and unaffordable ground rents, reinvigorate commonhold through a comprehensive new legal framework, and ban the sale of new leasehold flats so commonhold becomes the default tenure.
The Government has made clear it intends to publish draft legislation on leasehold and commonhold reform in this session so that it may be subject to broad consultation and additional parliamentary scrutiny. We will announce further details in due course.
Asked by: Joe Powell (Labour - Kensington and Bayswater)
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 support free, fair and peaceful elections in Georgia.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
On 9 October, I [Minister Doughty] made clear to Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili that Georgia's parliamentary elections must be held in accordance with international democratic standards. We have allocated £500,000 to support independent election monitoring in Georgia. The funding will enable the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) election observation mission and Georgian civil society groups to effectively monitor 26 October's parliamentary elections.
Asked by: Joe Powell (Labour - Kensington and Bayswater)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she plans to take with Cabinet colleagues to recover public money spent on contracts for goods and services that were not provided during the pandemic.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
We are appointing a fixed-term Covid Fraud Commissioner through an open competition that is running now. The Commissioner will make sure that everything is done to return the money owed to the public purse, with a primary focus on pandemic PPE contracts. The Commissioner will report to the Chancellor, working with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and their report will be presented to Parliament for all Members to see.