Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will include a new offence of failing to prevent economic crime in the provisions of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill announced in the Queen's Speech 2022.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Building on the recently enacted Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act, the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill will bear down further on kleptocrats, criminals and terrorists who abuse our financial system, strengthening the UK's reputation as a place where legitimate business can thrive while driving dirty money out of the UK.
As set out in the Queen’s Speech, the Bill will include reform of Companies House, reforms to prevent abuse of limited partnerships, additional powers to seize suspect cryptoassets more quickly and easily, and reforms to give businesses more confidence to share information in order to tackle money laundering and other economic crime.
The Government keeps UK law under regular review to ensure a robust legislative framework. In 2020, the Government commissioned the Law Commission to undertake a detailed review of how the legislative system could be improved to appropriately capture and punish criminal offences committed by corporations, with a particular focus on economic crime.
The Law Commission report was published on 10 June. The Government will carefully assess the options presented and will take forward the strongest options for reform.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions her Department has had with the Ethiopian Government on the release of the final air accident report for Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, which crashed on the 10th March, 2019.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Our thoughts remain with the victims and their families of this tragic accident, and I appreciate the distress caused by the ongoing delays. Officials at the British Embassy in Addis Ababa have been in contact with the Ethiopian Ministry of Transport and Air Accident Investigation Department to discuss and lobby for the release of the final air accident report, and will continue to do so. During our last contact we were informed that, whilst no date has yet been set for the report's release, it is currently being finalised and that it will be released as soon as possible. In line with their international obligations, the Ministry of Transport issued an interim statement ahead of the 3rd anniversary.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will commit to not developing any forms of rent control as part of the planned white paper and legislation on reform of the private rented sector.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Opposition Chief Whip (Commons)
The Government does not support the introduction of controls on the amount of rent that landlords can charge in the private rented sector. Historical evidence suggests that rent controls would discourage investment in the sector and would lead to declining property standards as a result, which would not help landlords or tenants.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report published by his Department entitled Tackling antimicrobial resistance 2019–2024: the UK's 5-year national action plan, published on 24 January 2019, whether his Department is taking steps to (a) tackle the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance and (b) embed support for antimicrobial stewardship in his Department's work.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The United Kingdom’s antimicrobial national action plan aims to reduce the need for and unintentional exposure to antimicrobials by lowering the burden of infection; optimise the use of antimicrobials; and invest in innovation, supply and access of new diagnostics, therapies and vaccines.
Diagnostics and antimicrobial stewardship leads have been appointed in NHS England regional teams and national toolkits, decision aids and guidelines to support the appropriate use of antimicrobials have been developed and published. Commissioning for Quality and Innovation schemes for management of urinary tract infection and reducing antimicrobial use in secondary care have also been implemented.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the 2016 Review on Antimicrobial Resistance: Lord O’Neill’s independent review of antimicrobial resistance in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust, which recommended that all antibiotic prescribing should be informed by rapid diagnostics, what steps he is taking to ensure that primary care settings are equipped with point of care multiplex testing technology.
Answered by Maggie Throup
As part of the United Kingdom’s national action plan for antimicrobial (AMR) resistance, NHS England and NHS Improvement’s AMR programme is examining the adoption of innovations in diagnostics, improving clinical best practice and applying point-of-care testing for urinary tract infections, respiratory tract infections, surgical site infections and acute deterioration, including sepsis.
This aims to identify any gaps in diagnostic pathways and practices with a focus on improving patient outcomes and antimicrobial stewardship in National Health Service and community care settings. Optimising the potential use of point-of-care multiplex testing in primary care is also being considered. NHS England and NHS Improvement supports the appointment of diagnostics and antimicrobial stewardship leads in each regional team in England. Additionally, national guidelines and national toolkits such as TARGET in primary care and ‘Start SMART then focus’ in secondary care, support antimicrobial stewardship, including the appropriate use of diagnostic tests and tools.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made on the effectiveness of rapid point of care diagnostics across the NHS in helping the UK to be a world-leader in the delivery of antimicrobial stewardship programmes.
Answered by Maggie Throup
As part of the United Kingdom’s national action plan for antimicrobial (AMR) resistance, NHS England and NHS Improvement’s AMR programme is examining the adoption of innovations in diagnostics, improving clinical best practice and applying point-of-care testing for urinary tract infections, respiratory tract infections, surgical site infections and acute deterioration, including sepsis.
This aims to identify any gaps in diagnostic pathways and practices with a focus on improving patient outcomes and antimicrobial stewardship in National Health Service and community care settings. Optimising the potential use of point-of-care multiplex testing in primary care is also being considered. NHS England and NHS Improvement supports the appointment of diagnostics and antimicrobial stewardship leads in each regional team in England. Additionally, national guidelines and national toolkits such as TARGET in primary care and ‘Start SMART then focus’ in secondary care, support antimicrobial stewardship, including the appropriate use of diagnostic tests and tools.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of increasing adoption of rapid point of care diagnostics to support antimicrobial stewardship objectives within (a) primary and (b) community care settings across the NHS.
Answered by Maggie Throup
As part of the United Kingdom’s national action plan for antimicrobial (AMR) resistance, NHS England and NHS Improvement’s AMR programme is examining the adoption of innovations in diagnostics, improving clinical best practice and applying point-of-care testing for urinary tract infections, respiratory tract infections, surgical site infections and acute deterioration, including sepsis.
This aims to identify any gaps in diagnostic pathways and practices with a focus on improving patient outcomes and antimicrobial stewardship in National Health Service and community care settings. Optimising the potential use of point-of-care multiplex testing in primary care is also being considered. NHS England and NHS Improvement supports the appointment of diagnostics and antimicrobial stewardship leads in each regional team in England. Additionally, national guidelines and national toolkits such as TARGET in primary care and ‘Start SMART then focus’ in secondary care, support antimicrobial stewardship, including the appropriate use of diagnostic tests and tools.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the proposed asylum processing site at Linton-on-Ouse on (a) public services and (b) local residents in the context of that village's population size relative to the number of asylum seekers proposed to be accommodated at that site.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office is conducting an Equality Impact Assessment on the use of Linton-On-Ouse as an accommodation centre.
Key local partners and stakeholders have been notified of the plans for Linton-on-Ouse. We are bringing together statutory and other agencies on a regular basis both in the implementation stage and when the site is operational.
We are also engaging with the local community and discussing the site with them through scheduled meetings and forums.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the compatibility of the proposed asylum processing site at Linton-on-Ouse with section 1.7 of the National Audit Office report entitled COMPASS contracts for the provision of accommodation for asylum seekers, published in 2014, which states that contractors are required to consider a range of social cohesion, housing and community factors alongside cost when proposing properties for dispersal accommodation for asylum seekers and the level of risk of increased social tension if the number of asylum seekers increases within a given area.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The COMPASS contracts ended when the Asylum Accommodation and Support Services Contracts (AASC) were awarded in 2019. The Home Office’s use of the of Linton-on-Ouse will be as an accommodation centre not dispersed accommodation.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the (a) locations and (b) sizes are of defence bases his Department will have vacated between 2015-2030.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
A list of bases identified for future disposal are detailed on the Ministry of Defence's disposal database, a copy of which has been placed in the Library of the House and can be accessed online via the following link Disposal database: House of Commons report - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Details of bases sold between 2015 and 2022 have also been placed in the Library of the House.