Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
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 support research in the pharmaceutical sector in Newbury.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department funds research and research infrastructure, which supports patients and the public to participate in high-quality research across the United Kingdom, through the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR).
Development and delivery of research in the pharmaceutical sector is supported and enabled nationwide through NIHR infrastructure, including the NIHR Research Delivery Network (RDN), the NIHR Clinical Research Facilities (CRFs), the NIHR Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs), and the newly designated NIHR Commercial Research Delivery Centres (CRDCs). These all support the delivery of clinical research through facilities, staff resource, collaborations, and funding.
In Newbury, pharmaceutical research benefits from the South Central RDN, as well as the Oxford and Southampton-based CRFs and BRCs, and from April, a new CRDC in Southampton, all of which support a range of pharmaceutical studies in the region.
In order to maximise our potential to be a world leader and develop a more competitive, efficient, and accessible clinical research system, the Department is committed to implementing the recommendations from Lord O'Shaughnessy’s independent review of commercial clinical trials in full. We expect these efforts to attract more commercial investment in clinical research and yield a broad and diverse portfolio of clinical trials in the United Kingdom, to provide innovative treatment options for patients.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing funding to ensure that the Lifelong Links programme can be extended to all children in care.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is committed to helping children thrive and wants the best for every child and family. We know that a stable support network and loving relationships are crucial to supporting children in care and care leavers to thrive.
To support this, the department is currently funding 50 family finding, befriending and mentoring programmes, being delivered by 45 local authorities. These programmes will help children in care and care leavers to identify and connect with the important people in their lives and create safe, stable loving relationships. Of the 45 local authorities, 23 are delivering Lifelong Links as their family finding programme.
The family finding, befriending and mentoring programme is being evaluated and this will inform decisions about the future of the programme.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing separate inheritance tax thresholds for (a) agricultural land and (b) business equipment for farmers.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government published information about the reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief at www.gov.uk/government/publications/agricultural-property-relief-and-business-property-relief-reforms.
It is expected that up to around 2,000 estates will be affected in 2026-27 by the changes to APR and BPR, with around half of those being claims that involve AIM shares. Almost three-quarters of estates claiming agricultural property relief (or those claiming agricultural property relief and business property relief together) are expected to be unaffected by these reforms.
In accordance with standard practice, a tax information and impact note will be published alongside the draft legislation before the relevant Finance Bill.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what her Department's timescales are for bringing forward secondary legislation in relation to the Leasehold Act 2024.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the Hon Member to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 21 November 2024 (HCWS244).
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing measures to prevent households that have chosen not to install smart meters from higher energy tariffs.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The mechanism for protecting consumers from disproportionate energy prices is the Price Cap, which ensures default tariffs are priced efficiently. This protects households who are on their supplier’s default tariff. The level of the price cap is the same for both smart and non-smart meter default tariffs.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
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 make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing measures to reduce the hope value of land.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government recently brought into force regulations that provide for the removal of ‘hope value’ from the assessment of compensation in compulsory purchase cases, where there is justification in the public interest. Guidance and a fact sheet on the measures was published on 3 October 2024 and can be found here.
We have made clear our intention to further reform the compulsory purchase process and land compensation rules to enable more effective land assembly that will speed-up and lower the costs of the delivery of housing and critical infrastructure in the public interest. The reforms will be subject to consultation which will be published shortly.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
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 support the Pharmacy First campaign.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There is a targeted public communications campaign with associated media materials, running from 11 November 2024 until mid-December 2024 as well as coordinated communications across the healthcare system and sharing best practices where the service is already working well.
Action is also being taken to drive further engagement and referrals from general practice, with targeted engagement through regional and integrated care board (ICB) channels and regular data to support managing performance. In addition to this, funding has been provided to ICBs to recruit primary care network engagement leads who will be well placed to support practice teams to refer into the service.
Additionally, NHS England is improving digital systems to make the referral process better integrated, including further development of electronic referral systems. Most pharmacies can now also receive Pharmacy First referrals from general practitioners straight into their NHS England assured pharmacy IT systems.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to increase the cleanliness of rivers.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
For too long, sewage and pollution have contributed to the uncleanliness of our rivers, lakes, and seas.
The Water (Special Measures) Bill will deliver on the Government’s commitment to put water companies under special measures. It will drive meaningful improvements in the performance and culture of the water industry as a first important step in enabling wider, transformative change across the water sector.
The Secretary of State has also commissioned a full, independent review of the water sector to shape further legislation that will transform how our water system works and clean up rivers, lakes and seas for good.
Defra and its Arm’s-Length Bodies continue to work with farmers to tackle agricultural pollution through a suite of regulations, advice and incentives; this includes the rollout of Environmental Land Management schemes.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department plans to take to provide additional support to local authorities to prepare for flooding in winter 2024-25.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We set up the first ever Floods Resilience Taskforce on 12 September. The Taskforce sets out a new approach to preparing for flooding, and working cohesively between national, regional and local government, including the devolved administrations and flood risk partners. This Taskforce will ensure that the UK’s preparedness for, and resilience to, flooding is reviewed regularly and robustly. It will ensure we continuously improve to ensure optimum protection to people, homes and businesses.
The Environment Agency has also completed briefing sessions with the Local Resilience Forum chairs group, providing an overview of winter preparedness activity and the likely scenarios for this winter.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department is taking steps to introduce digital equine identification.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only.
The Government recognises the importance of the equine sector to the UK economy and of improving equine identification and traceability. Digital enhancements are unlikely in the near future, though Defra is considering other improvements in the meantime.