Asked by: Josh Simons (Labour - Makerfield)
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 ban the (a) sale and (b) manufacture of wet wipes that contain plastic.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is working together with the devolved Governments to understand the issue, with a view to legislate to ban wet wipes containing plastic across the UK.
Asked by: Josh Simons (Labour - Makerfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help (a) ensure that academic (i) funding and (ii) other resources are not used to support Chinese state surveillance and (b) protect universities from national security risks.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The UK welcomes international partnerships and students, including those from China, who make a very positive impact on the UK’s higher education (HE) sector, economy and society as a whole. However, the UK will always protect its national security interests, human rights and values.
There are a set of measures that protect against undue foreign interference in UK universities. These include the Academic Technology Approval Scheme, which vets students and researchers seeking to study in sensitive areas, as well as the provisions of the Education Act 1986, which require HE providers to uphold freedom of speech within the law for staff, students and visiting speakers. In England, all registered providers must uphold applicable public interest governance principles in order to meet the regulatory requirements of the Office for Students, including principles on academic freedom and accountability, such as operating openly and with integrity.
The government also offers practical advice through the National Protective Security Authority, the National Cyber Security Centre and the Research Collaboration and Advice Team (RCAT) to support the HE sector with maximising the opportunities of international collaboration, whilst also managing the risks. The department works alongside these partners and engages directly with the sector to increase their understanding of the risks and their ability to respond to them.
The National Security Act 2023 further strengthened the UK’s legal powers to counter foreign interference, including those actions which amount to transnational repression, and provides the security services and law enforcement agencies with additional tools to deter, detect and disrupt modern-day state threats.
This government will take a consistent, long-term and strategic approach to managing the UK’s relations with China, rooted in UK and global interests. We will cooperate where we can, compete where we need to, and challenge where we must. The department is contributing towards the government’s audit of the UK’s relationship with China as a bilateral and global actor, to improve the UK’s ability to understand and respond to the challenges and opportunities China poses.
Asked by: Josh Simons (Labour - Makerfield)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how much has been spent on the statutory element of Shared Parental Leave since its inception (a) in total and (b) by (i) geographical area and (ii) industry.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Information provided by employers to HMRC shows that the total value of payments made to individuals in receipt of Statutory Shared Parental Pay was £178.9m between 2014/15 and 2023/24 (the latest year for which full year data is available).
The table below presents a breakdown of the value of payments made to individuals by the region (based on recipient residence). Information on the sector or industry worked in by the recipient of Shared Parental Pay is not available.
Table 1: Total value of payments made to individuals in receipt of Statutory Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) by claimant resident region, 2014/15 to 2023/24
Government Office Region (based on residence of recipient of ShPP) | Total value of Statutory Shared Parental Pay payments |
East Midlands | £10,300,000 |
East of England | £16,200,000 |
London | £40,800,000 |
North East | £4,800,000 |
North West | £15,300,000 |
South East | £27,500,000 |
South West | £18,000,000 |
West Midlands | £10,400,000 |
Yorkshire and The Humber | £12,200,000 |
Northern Ireland | £2,900,000 |
Scotland | £9,900,000 |
Wales | £5,900,000 |
Other | £4,600,000 |
Notes
Asked by: Josh Simons (Labour - Makerfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the contractual regime for Sunday working for train conductors in the North West; and what steps she plans to take to ensure that Sunday services are adequately staffed.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Sundays currently fall outside of the working week for 95 per cent of Northern’s conductors in the North-West, making the service reliant on staff volunteering to work their days off.
This is a key contributing factor to the unacceptably high levels of cancellations passengers are suffering on a Sunday. The Secretary of State and Rail Minister have both met Northern, and great efforts are going into solving the long-standing industrial relations issues and disputes that we been left with by the previous government, which are at the root of the problems with Sunday train services in the North-West.
Asked by: Josh Simons (Labour - Makerfield)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate she has made of the Exchequer loss from UK citizens working abroad paying Class 2 NICs to build up entitlement to a state pension; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring such citizens to pay Class 3 NICs.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government has made no estimate of this. The Government keeps all tax policy under review.
Asked by: Josh Simons (Labour - Makerfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the report by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Hormone Pregnancy Tests, published in March 2024.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are hugely sympathetic to the families who believe that they or their children have suffered because of using hormone pregnancy tests (HPTs). The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, together with the wider Government, have committed to review any new scientific evidence which comes to light since the conclusions of the 2017 independent Expert Working Group (EWG), convened by the Commission on Human Medicines. In line with this commitment, we will be seeking independent expert advice on Professor Danielsson’s publication from the Commission on Human Medicines in due course.
On the other recommendation in the HPT All Party Parliamentary Group February 2024 report, we currently have no plans to set up an independent review to examine the findings of the EWG. In the interests of transparency, all evidence collected, and papers considered by the EWG, were published in 2018, along with full minutes of its discussions. Details of conflicts of interests and how these were managed were also published.
Asked by: Josh Simons (Labour - Makerfield)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what (a) his planned timescale is and (b) the terms of reference are for the review of parental leave; and who will conduct the review.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
As committed to in the Plan to Make Work Pay, the Government will review the system of parental leave to ensure that it better supports working parents. We are still in the early planning stages for this Review and are actively considering the parameters and process for delivering it. As such it is not possible to confirm these details at this time.
Asked by: Josh Simons (Labour - Makerfield)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether he plans to return money the Government (a) has received and (b) will receive from the Mineworkers' Pension Scheme.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Our Manifesto committed to reviewing the surplus sharing arrangements and transferring the Investment Reserve back to scheme members. We are committed to ending the injustice of the Mineworkers' Pension Scheme and work on delivering these commitments is already underway.
Asked by: Josh Simons (Labour - Makerfield)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether he has had discussions with Ofgem on British Gas's billing system migration; and whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of that migration on customers.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Regulation of energy suppliers is a matter for Ofgem. All retail energy suppliers are required to meet the standard license conditions set out by Ofgem which detail the minimum standards customers must be provided. Suppliers are expected to provide customers with clear and easily understandable ways to contact them about a problem, question or other request for assistance.
Asked by: Josh Simons (Labour - Makerfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of people being removed from dentist registries due to (a) missing appointments and (b) failing to make timely appointments.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Patients in England are not registered with a National Health Service dental practice, although many NHS dental practices do tend to see patients regularly. NHS dental practices are contracted to deliver a course of treatment to an individual irrespective of where they live, allowing patients the choice of where they would like to receive care.
NHS dentists are required to keep their NHS.UK website profiles up to date, so that patients can find a dentist more easily. This includes information on whether they are accepting new patients. In circumstances where patients are unable to access an urgent dental appointment directly through an NHS dental practice, they should contact NHS 111.