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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her Department's guidance entitled Simpler recycling: workplace recycling in England, published on 29 November 2024, whether (a) waste collection businesses, (b) local authorities and (c) businesses will be fined if recyclable material is (i) intentionally and (ii) unintentionally placed in residual waste office bins.

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

The Environment Agency (EA) is the regulator for Simpler Recycling for Non-Household waste and are committed to supporting businesses – both waste producers and collectors – in understanding their duties. As a Regulator they are required to have regard to the Regulator’s Code which requires them to support growth, engage with business, take a risk-based and proportionate approach to regulation, and to help those they regulate get it right.

Where contamination is identified, the EA will take a pragmatic and proportionate approach to enforcement, providing advice and guidance in the first instance. To take enforcement action (in accordance with their enforcement and sanction policy) the EA would need to be satisfied that an offence had been committed. Where this is identified, a compliance notice would be served and further non-compliance could be pursued as a criminal offence through the courts. The EA does not have power to serve a fixed penalty notice (i.e. civil sanctions).

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 4 March 2025 to Question 32576 on Fires: Air Pollution, whether WRAP has made an assessment of the potential impact of the burning of household rubbish in the gardens of residential properties on air pollution.

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

WRAP has not made an assessment of the potential impact of the burning of household rubbish in the gardens of residential properties on air pollution. However, the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI) includes estimates of existing emissions from burning household waste and garden waste outdoors.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the cost to the NHS is for cross solent travel for (a) patients, (b) ambulance transport and (c) staff annually.

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

Information at this level of detail is not held centrally.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department's postgraduate training review will consider the level of access to training opportunities available to international medical graduates.

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

We are committed to training the staff we need to ensure that patients are cared for by the right professional, when and where they need it.

To reform the National Health Service and make it fit for the future, we have launched a 10-Year Health Plan as part of the Government’s five long-term missions. Ensuring we have the right people, in the right places, with the right skills will be central to this vision. We will publish a refreshed workforce plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, and treat patients on time again.

We will ensure that the number of medical specialty training places meets the demands of the NHS in the future. NHS England will work with stakeholders to ensure that any growth is sustainable and focused in the service areas where the need is greatest.

The Medical Training Review is overseen by NHS England’s National Medical Director and the Chief Medical Officer. The review will hear about best practice, listen to concerns, including issues around training pathways and the capacity, quality, and inclusivity of training, and will explore ideas and thoughts about how postgraduate medical training could evolve for the future. An engagement exercise will run through to June this year, with findings to be reported in the summer.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the revised Long-Term Workforce Plan will include a detailed plan for (a) meeting demand for training and (b) resolving competition ratios in the NHS.

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

We are committed to training the staff we need to ensure that patients are cared for by the right professional, when and where they need it.

To reform the National Health Service and make it fit for the future, we have launched a 10-Year Health Plan as part of the Government’s five long-term missions. Ensuring we have the right people, in the right places, with the right skills will be central to this vision. We will publish a refreshed workforce plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, and treat patients on time again.

We will ensure that the number of medical specialty training places meets the demands of the NHS in the future. NHS England will work with stakeholders to ensure that any growth is sustainable and focused in the service areas where the need is greatest.

The Medical Training Review is overseen by NHS England’s National Medical Director and the Chief Medical Officer. The review will hear about best practice, listen to concerns, including issues around training pathways and the capacity, quality, and inclusivity of training, and will explore ideas and thoughts about how postgraduate medical training could evolve for the future. An engagement exercise will run through to June this year, with findings to be reported in the summer.

Found: ; St Ives) Paulette Hamilton (Labour; Birmingham Erdington) Alex McIntyre (Labour; Gloucester) Joe Robertson