Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on encouraging young people to consider employment in (a) farming and (b) other rural occupations.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State has regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues on a wide range of issues.
Attracting bright new talent into land-based careers and having a skilled workforce in place is vital for the future of UK food and farming.
The Government is contributing towards the establishment of a new professional body for the farming industry; The Institute for Agriculture and Horticulture (TIAH). TIAH is aimed at removing the fragmentation that exists within current learning and skills landscape for farming businesses, enabling the industry to drive greater uptake of skills, creating clear career development pathways and promoting the sector as a progressive, professional and attractive career choice. This includes leading a cross-industry initiative to address common negative misconceptions about the sector.
We are currently piloting different approaches to building entrepreneurial capacity in those who wish to start their own land-based business or scale-up their existing business venture, including how to pitch effectively for land and finance, which are crucial for their success.
The Government is also reforming post-16 technical education to provide clearer routes into skilled employment in agriculture and other sectors. A key part of this is the introduction of the new Technical Level programmes (T-levels) which include pathways in agriculture, environmental and animal health and care. Alongside apprenticeships this provides more opportunities and pathways for young people looking for careers in agriculture and horticulture.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with NHS England on increasing access to diabetes healthcare teams in (a) Leicestershire (b) Bosworth and (c) the rest of the UK.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has held no discussions with NHS England on increasing access to diabetes healthcare teams specifically in Leicestershire, Bosworth and the rest of the UK.
On 17 May 2023, the Government launched a call for evidence to inform the Major Conditions Strategy on how best to prevent, diagnose and manage six groups of major conditions, including diabetes.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of progress by the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop a UN plastics treaty.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK is proud to have supported the proposal by Rwanda and Peru that led to the ambitious resolution on ending plastic pollution agreed at the 5th session of the United Nations Environment Assembly in March 2022.
A series of Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) meetings is now underway to negotiate the content of the treaty, with good progress being made. The second of five planned INC meetings will take place 29 May – 2 June in Paris, with the aim of concluding negotiations by the end of 2024. Whilst the timeline to agree this global Treaty is short, this reflects the urgency needed to tackle plastic pollution, alongside the strong global political will for an agreement.
The UK supports a combination of international obligations and national measures across the whole plastic lifecycle to ensure that the Treaty can adequately address the transboundary nature of plastic pollution. As one of the founding members of the high ambition coalition of countries calling for an end to plastic pollution by 2040, the UK will do all we can to press for the agreement of a high ambition Treaty by the end of 2024.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of trespassing laws on protection of the countryside.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Home Office is responsible for such laws. Under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, the police have powers to direct trespassers who are residing on land to leave. Failure to comply with the direction is a criminal offence. Through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, the Government strengthened these powers of direction to:
o broaden the types of harm that are covered by the police power to direct trespassers away, to include damage, disruption and distress;
o increase the period in which trespassers directed away from the land must not return from three months to 12 months; and
o enable police to direct people away from land that forms part of a highway.
No recent assessment has been undertaken by Defra on the adequacy of these laws with respect to trespassing on private land for the purposes of recreation.
The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 provides access across large parts of the English countryside and a right to roam across open access land, giving the public a right of access to most areas of mountain, moor, heath, down, registered common land and coastal margin. This is subject to certain restrictions and behaviours set out in the Act including those considered to be a criminal offence.
Public Spaces Protection Orders and the use of byelaws can also be used to address local issues to protect the countryside where it is reasonable and proportionate to do so.
The refreshed Countryside Code sets out the rules that we all must follow to enjoy visits to the countryside safely and responsibly.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
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 (a) address the backlog in NHS England's diabetes service, (b) promote greater integration of diabetes services with other NHS services, (c) promote greater co-ordination of diabetes services with other NHS services and (d) improve diabetes services.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
To address the backlog in NHS England’s diabetes service, in 2022/23, £36m was allocated to integrated care boards (ICBs) to support the recovery of routine diabetes care. In addition, the 2023/24 ‘NHS Priorities and Operational Planning Guidance’ asked that ICBs update plans for the prevention of ill-health including a continued focus on diabetes in their joint forward plans.
On 17 May 2023, the Government launched a call for evidence to inform the Major Conditions Strategy on how best to prevent, diagnose and manage six groups of major conditions, including diabetes.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a national carers passport scheme.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has no plans to assess the potential merits of introducing a national carers passport scheme. In partnership with Carers UK and Carers Trust, the Department funded a project in 2017/18 to provide resources and guidance to support the development of local Carer Passport schemes. The resources and guidance were launched in 2018 and remain active.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
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 increase the early identification of people with familial hypercholesterolaemia in (a) Leicestershire and (b) the UK.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England are collaborating with Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland’s Integrated Care Board to implement an agreed model of a nurse-led, assessment and genetic testing service to increase the early identification of people with familial hypercholesterolaemia in Leicestershire. Once established, clinics will be held in primary care venues across Leicestershire with an allocated familial hypercholesterolaemia Specialist Nurse.
NHS England is reviewing the decision of the National Screening Committee on screening for familial hypercholesterolaemia and is considering how best to address the committee’s outstanding concerns. This work will be supported by an ongoing child parent screening pilot which is being implemented through the Academic Health Sciences Networks.
The Department has been supporting local areas with the recovery of the NHS Health Check programme, which includes an assessment of cholesterol. We are progressing a programme of modernisation which includes the development of a digital NHS Health Check that will include home cholesterol testing and enable more people to benefit.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that data on the number of children with neuro-diversity is reflected in (a) national policy development, (b) local funding allocations and (c) operational guidance for local outreach services.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The department has multiple data collections related to pupils and students with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) published on GOV.UK at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/. The SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Green Paper consultation and subsequent Improvement Plan, published in March 2023, are underpinned by this data and wider evidence.
The Dedicated Schools Grant is intended to meet the educational costs of pupils in primary and secondary education, as well as the educational costs of special educational provision for children and young people with SEND in post-16 provision, including those aged over 19 and up to 25 who have an Education, Health and Care plan. This is set out here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-needs-funding-arrangements-2022-to-2023/high-needs-funding-2022-to-2023-operational-guidance.
The department committed in the SEND and AP Improvement Plan to publish local and national inclusion dashboards from autumn 2023, which will present performance data across education, health and care, covering the full system from ages 0-25.
We also committed to introducing new local SEND and AP partnerships, who will be expected to create evidence-based local inclusion plans, drawing on the new dashboards, to set out how the needs of children and young people in the local area will be met in line with new national SEND and AP standards.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department's publication entitled Our plan for patients, published on 22 September 2022, what progress his Department has made on increasing patient access to NHS dentistry services.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
In November 2022, many of the dental system reforms announced in July 2022 and reiterated in ‘Our plan for patients’ came into force. These included splitting Band 2 payments to ensure dentists were more fairly remunerated for more complex dental treatment and allowing dentists to deliver up to 110% of their contracted dental activity to further improve access.
NHS England also reissued guidance on using dental care practitioners to the full extent of their professional skills and reiterated the guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence that adults with good oral health do not need to see a dentist more often than every two years and a child every one year. There is also now a contractual requirement for all practices to keep their availability and whether or not they are accepting new National Health Service patients up to date on the NHS website which will help patients in accessing care. However, we know we need to do more and that is why we are working on additional reforms which we plan to announce shortly.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps the Government is taking to ensure wider public awareness of broadband social tariffs.
Answered by John Whittingdale
Ofcom’s latest Affordability Report (April 2023) showed 47% of eligible households were aware of social tariffs, up from 16% in January 2022. While we recognise the progress, more is needed to ensure households know about the support available.
In November, the Government - as part of Help for Households - launched a UK-wide multichannel campaign to publicise social tariffs among eligible households. The campaign partnered with a range of stakeholders - including other government departments, job centres, libraries, local authorities, consumer groups and internet service providers - to maximise the reach of our messaging.
The Government has also provided information directly to libraries, the regional school networks across the UK and via jobcentre work coaches to enable them to provide information directly to those on Universal Credit. In March, the Minister for Digital Infrastructure wrote to all members of the House of Commons to ask them to raise awareness in their constituencies.
We continue to work closely with providers and have called on the industry to do more to promote social tariffs to their eligible customers.