Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether beverage industry manufacturers will be required to pay the Extended Producer Responsibility levy if they sell their products in the on-trade market with proof from the vendor of a non-council-funded recycling scheme.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The current regulations do not allow for this. This is because there are real challenges in effectively applying and compliance monitoring such an exemption across all sectors and producer types, resulting in a significant risk of misreporting and fraud. Government however recognises the strong views of stakeholders and is looking again at the household packaging definition. A new period of stakeholder engagement on this issue will commence shortly.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ban bottom trawling within more English Marine Protected Areas.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Surrey Heath on 13 November 2024, PQ 13315.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to increase the number of highly protected marine areas in English waters.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra is undertaking a review of the English Marine Protected Area network to look at whether sites are in the right places with the right protection. The review will explore ways to update protection and management approaches to better address the nature crisis and improve climate change resilience, while supporting wider Government priorities. Highly Protected Marine Areas are part of the scope of this review and whilst we currently have no plans for designating additional HPMAs we will assess what we have learned so far from the first 3 sites designated in 2023.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
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 improve community support to help tackle the number of people with (a) a learning disability and (b) autism in inpatient units.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
National Health Service planning guidance, published on 30 January 2025, includes a focus on improving mental health and learning disability care and contains the objective to deliver a minimum 10% reduction in the use of mental health inpatient care for people with a learning disability and autistic people in 2025/26. Investment has been provided each year to enable local areas to develop community intensive support teams, community forensic teams, and 24/7 crisis response for people with a learning disability and autistic people. For the 2025/2026 financial year, there is continued funding within integrated care board (ICB) baselines for people with a learning disability and autistic people. ICBs should prioritise continuing to invest in reducing reliance on inpatient care for people with a learning disability and autistic people, in line with the 2025/26 NHS operating planning guidance.
The Mental Health Bill was introduced in the House of Commons on 24 April 2025, following its recent passage through the House of Lords. Through the bill, we propose taking forward a package of measures to improve care and to keep people out of hospitals. Subject to Parliamentary agreement, measures around Dynamic Support Registers and Care (Education) and Treatment Reviews, and new duties on commissioners will help to ensure that there is an appropriate level of community support in future.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 27 March 2025 to Question 42145 Community Health Services: Medical Equipment, what data his Department holds on the number of contracts agreed between local NHS procuring authorities with community equipment providers in the last five years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Neither the Department or NHS England hold data on contracts agreed between local National Health Service procuring authorities and community equipment providers.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
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.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
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.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
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.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
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).
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
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.