Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what his planned timetable is for bringing forward secondary legislation under the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill once enacted.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Bill will give us the powers we need to make necessary changes to the product regulation framework. Secondary legislation is subject to the Bill receiving Royal Assent and subsequent parliamentary time in passing any secondary legislation. It is too early to commit to a detailed timetable for secondary legislation, but we will continue to work with stakeholders as this develops.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of changes to Civil Procedure Rules on alternative dispute resolution; and if she will have discussions with CEDAWinLAW on mediation.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Civil Procedure rules are a matter for the Ministry of Justice. MOJ is working to increase the number of legal disputes resolved without the need for a judicial decision. They will monitor the impact of the changes and will continue engaging with stakeholders as they keep all methods of alternative dispute resolution under review to explore opportunities to increase take up both before and after legal proceedings have started. The Secretary of State has not made an assessment of them.
With reference to CEDAWinLaw, in the Judicial Review on changes to State Pension age, both the High Court and Court of Appeal found there was no discrimination on any grounds.
There is no subsisting legal dispute, so it would not be appropriate for the Secretary of State to enter into mediation with this group.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will publish an Equality Impact Assessment of changes resulting from the Elections Act 2022.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The previous Government published the Equality Impact Assessment relating to changes resulting from the Elections Act 2022. This was published on 5 July 2021 and can be found here: Elections Bill equality assessment.
We are currently undertaking an evaluation of the impact and implementation of the Elections Act at the recent UK Parliamentary General Election, as set out in legislation. Our evaluation report will be published in due course.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will take steps to ensure that the Office for Product Safety and Standards is adequately resourced to enforce the provisions of the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Capacity already exists to enforce the provisions proposed in the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill in both the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) and in local authorities. Government will consider any changes to resourcing requirements for OPSS within the Spending Review and departmental business planning processes. Local authority budgets are set by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and allocated by local authorities according to their priorities.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will (a) list the product regulations that will be reviewed under the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill and (b) make an assessment of the effectiveness of current legislation in protecting consumers from the sale of dangerous toys sold on online marketplaces.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Product Regulation and Metrology Bill will provide Government with enabling powers to update regulations. The main regulations are listed in the recently published Government response to the Product Safety Review.
The Office for Product Safety and Standards runs a national programme to reduce the risk of non-compliant products sold online. Through monitoring and evaluating marketplaces, including purchasing and testing products, we assess the prevalence of unsafe toys and take appropriate enforcement action.
While UK regulations are clear that toys must be safe, the Bill will enable regulations to be updated to better reflect modern supply chains, including online marketplaces.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if his Department will take steps to prevent third-party sellers from selling dangerous goods to consumers.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
UK product safety law is clear: all products must be safe. Third-party sellers have clear obligations under legislation where they are either producers or distributors.
The Office for Product Safety and Standards carries out a range of regulatory actions to reduce the risk of unsafe products being sold online by third-party sellers. This includes test purchasing, taking enforcement action, providing guidance to sellers, and working with Local Authority Trading Standards and Border Force to undertake co-ordinated interventions.
In addition, the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill will provide powers to update the responsibilities of online supply chain actors, including third-party sellers.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will take steps to ensure that market surveillance authorities are adequately resourced to manage new requirements for online marketplaces.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Product Regulation and Metrology Bill will provide Government with enabling powers to introduce new requirements on online marketplaces. The Office for Product Safety and Standards and local authorities already carry out a range of regulatory actions to reduce the risk of unsafe products being sold online.
Government will consider any changes to resourcing requirements for OPSS within the Spending Review and departmental business planning processes. Local authority budgets are set by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and allocated by local authorities according to their priorities.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will ensure that a code is created for myalgic encephalomyelitis in the SNOMED CT classification system in primary care.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Codes are created for SNOMED CT by one of the following organisations:
- UK National Release Centre (NRC), hosted by the Technology and Information Standards (TIS) group in NHS England;
- SNOMED International, a not-for-profit organisation that owns, administers and develops SNOMED CT;
- any other NRC in any other SNOMED CT member country.
All requests made to NHS England must be compliant with the Editorial Policy and are processed in accordance with the SNOMED CT UK Edition Governance and Change Request Process. Concepts are added or changed in SNOMED CT by NHS England terminologists in line with International and UK Editorial Principles as defined by SNOMED International at the recommendation of international clinical advisory groups. The authoring process includes a technical quality assurance and peer review. Once the authoring process has been completed and quality assured, the files are published on the Terminology Reference data Update Distribution website.
There is currently a code in SNOMED CT for myalgic encephalomyelitis. The Fully Specified Name (FSN) is ‘Chronic fatigue syndrome (disorder)’. The FSN for a code is not intended for use by a clinician. Instead, a clinician is expected to make use of the synonyms for the code, which include myalgic encephalomyelitis.
Clinical systems usually display a ‘preferred term’, deemed to be the most clinically appropriate way of expressing a concept. The preferred term for the code ‘Chronic fatigue syndrome (disorder)’ is ‘Chronic fatigue syndrome’.
NHS England is reviewing the preferred term to align it with the current most clinically appropriate term for the UK, with the preferred term ‘ME/CFS - myalgic encephalomyelitis/ chronic fatigue syndrome’ being considered.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how codes are created for the SNOMED CT classification system in primary care.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Codes are created for SNOMED CT by one of the following organisations:
- UK National Release Centre (NRC), hosted by the Technology and Information Standards (TIS) group in NHS England;
- SNOMED International, a not-for-profit organisation that owns, administers and develops SNOMED CT;
- any other NRC in any other SNOMED CT member country.
All requests made to NHS England must be compliant with the Editorial Policy and are processed in accordance with the SNOMED CT UK Edition Governance and Change Request Process. Concepts are added or changed in SNOMED CT by NHS England terminologists in line with International and UK Editorial Principles as defined by SNOMED International at the recommendation of international clinical advisory groups. The authoring process includes a technical quality assurance and peer review. Once the authoring process has been completed and quality assured, the files are published on the Terminology Reference data Update Distribution website.
There is currently a code in SNOMED CT for myalgic encephalomyelitis. The Fully Specified Name (FSN) is ‘Chronic fatigue syndrome (disorder)’. The FSN for a code is not intended for use by a clinician. Instead, a clinician is expected to make use of the synonyms for the code, which include myalgic encephalomyelitis.
Clinical systems usually display a ‘preferred term’, deemed to be the most clinically appropriate way of expressing a concept. The preferred term for the code ‘Chronic fatigue syndrome (disorder)’ is ‘Chronic fatigue syndrome’.
NHS England is reviewing the preferred term to align it with the current most clinically appropriate term for the UK, with the preferred term ‘ME/CFS - myalgic encephalomyelitis/ chronic fatigue syndrome’ being considered.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when the Chief Executive of the Government Property Agency will respond to the correspondence of (a) 31 July, (b) 16 August and (c) 26 September 2024 from the PCS union.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Chief Executive of the Government Property Agency will endeavour to prioritise a response to the specific issues highlighted in the next few days, no later than 1 November.