Asked by: Luke Myer (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce the disparity in healthy life expectancy between the North East and South East.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Tackling health inequalities is central to our Health Mission, which is why the Government has committed to halve the healthy life expectancy gap between the richest and poorest regions by addressing the social determinants of health. Work is currently underway across the Department and with NHS England and the regional Directors of Public Health to develop approaches to address regional health inequalities.
In line with the Health Mission, we will also be launching a 10-Year Health Plan with the core focus of addressing healthcare inequity, ensuring the National Health Service is there for anyone who needs it, whenever they need it.
Asked by: Luke Myer (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to ensure that teaching on the climate emergency is given greater priority in the revised national curriculum; and whether existing guidance that encourages teaching of the positive impacts of climate change will be reviewed.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, covering ages 5 to 18, chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE.
The Review’s interim report sets out that rapid social, environmental and technological change necessitates that the curriculum keep pace, including a greater focus on sustainability and climate science. The report can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/curriculum-and-assessment-review-interim-report. New opportunities and challenges, including those relating to climate change, will require particular knowledge and skills to address. The Review is considering whether there is sufficient coverage of these within subjects, and how content can remain relevant and support young people to thrive in a fast-changing world. This could involve further embedding various knowledge and skills across different parts of the curriculum. The Review is looking at all subjects, including subjects that currently contain content on climate science and sustainability, such as science, geography and citizenship.
The Review’s final report and recommendations will be published in autumn with the government’s response.
Asked by: Luke Myer (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what guidance her Department issues on whether bereaved families are liable for (a) rent and (b) other costs following the death of a Universal Credit claimant during an assessment period.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The liability of bereaved families of someone who may have been in receipt of Universal Credit will depend on whether they have entered into any legal agreements as a part of their relative's tenancy.
If individuals are unclear on whether they, or another family member, is liable for outstanding debts, they may wish to seek independent advice from organisations such as Citizens Advice.
The Renters’ Rights Bill will limit the liability of a guarantor of a tenancy agreement for rent in the tragic circumstance where a tenant related to them has died.
Asked by: Luke Myer (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
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 has made an assessment of the potential impact of proposed changes to the Bathing Water Regulations on (a) fish spawning sites, (b) riparian rights and (c) the rights of (i) angling clubs and (ii) fishery owners; and if he will undertake a full consultation before making changes.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The consultation on the Bathing Water Regulations 2013 closed on 23 December 2024. Many organisations have called for the Regulations to be updated to reflect the modern ways in which the public uses bathing waters so that they continue to support public health outcomes.
This Government published our formal response on 12 March 2025. The consultation results show a large majority in favour of the two wider reforms to expand the definition of a ‘bather’ and introducing the use of multiple monitoring points at designated bathing sites.
We are now progressing policy development and research to determine how best to implement the wider reforms. We will consider any potential environmental, societal, and access Impacts. We will work closely with local and national stakeholders, seeking their views on these reforms.
Asked by: Luke Myer (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
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 bring forward a revised regulatory framework for the nuclear sector.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
As the Prime Minister announced, the Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce will be undertaking a review of nuclear regulation, and it would be inappropriate to comment further until that review has concluded.
Asked by: Luke Myer (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to protect the (a) creative, (b) video game and (c) animation industries from the potential impact of AI-generated content on jobs and educational programs.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Our consultation on the impact of AI on the copyright regime, which was published on 17 December and closed on 25 February, received over 10,000 responses. We will now consider the full range of responses we have received and will continue to develop our policy approach in partnership with creative industries, media and AI stakeholders. Addressing this is an urgent priority for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, but no decisions will be taken until we are absolutely confident we have a practical plan that delivers for the creative industries.
The Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) also works closely with the Department for Education (DfE) on skills policy affecting the creative sector. This includes DfE’s work on the reformed growth and skills levy, which will help more people learn new high-quality skills at work, including digital skills, and create routes into good, skilled jobs in growing industries.
Many video games studios already use AI tools to streamline development processes and enhance game-play experience.
Asked by: Luke Myer (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to ensure jurors are adequately compensated for loss of earnings; and whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of jury service on jurors that receive compensation less than their usual income.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This Government has not made any specific assessment of the impact of jury service on jurors who receive compensation less than their usual income. However pursuant to my answer to PQ 36911, the Government will keep under review all support provided to jurors throughout their service. People who are not paid by their employer whilst they are on jury service can claim a loss of earnings allowance from the court. Self-employed people who lose earnings whilst doing jury service are also able to claim loss of earnings.
Asked by: Luke Myer (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to support the growth of the (a) electric vehicle and (b) lithium salts supply chains.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We support the Automotive sector via the Automotive Transformation Fund to build a globally competitive electric vehicle supply chain, including gigafactories and their supply chains. The Budget committed over £2 billion of capital and R&D funding to 2030 for zero emission vehicle manufacturing and supply chains. We will set out more information on this in due course as part of the Industrial Strategy.
Asked by: Luke Myer (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment his Department has made of the role of social media platforms in facilitating (a) paid-to-party and (b) yachting modelling schemes; and what steps he is taking with the Secretary of State for the Home Department to prevent the recruitment of young women for exploitative purposes through such schemes.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government continually assesses online service providers’ duties to tackle harmful content and activity on their services, including content relating to sexual exploitation. Under the Online Safety Act, social media platforms need to assess the risk of their services being used to facilitate several kinds of priority illegal harms. These include sexual exploitation. Where there is a risk, platforms need to take steps to mitigate it. Ofcom is the regulator for this regime. It sets out steps that providers can take in codes of practice. This includes steps relating to the design and operation of their services, as well as content moderation steps.
Asked by: Luke Myer (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
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) ensure cleanliness in NHS hospitals to prevent infections and (b) address instances where contractors responsible for cleanliness fail to meet their obligations.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Hospitals are responsible for ensuring that third-party service providers (e.g., cleaning, catering, maintenance staff) adhere to infection prevention and control (IPC) standards. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) evaluates whether hospitals have effective oversight of subcontractors and whether their services meet regulatory cleanliness and safety standards. More information on these CQC inspections is available at the following link:
https://www.cqc.org.uk/what-we-do/how-we-do-our-job/our-infection-prevention-control-inspections
Guidance for the cleaning of healthcare environments is contained in the NHS England national IPC manual. The manual is mandatory for all healthcare staff delivering services within the National Health Service in England. This includes the safe management of the care environment, linen and blood and body fluid spillages, and more information is available at the following link: