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:
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 help prevent NHS clinical staff from experiencing (a) verbal and (b) physical abuse at work.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government takes a zero-tolerance approach to any kind of abusive behaviour. All National Health Service staff, including those in clinical roles, should be able to care for patients without fear of verbal or physical abuse.
Individual employers are responsible for the health and safety of their staff and put in place many measures to do this including appropriate security, training and emotional support.
To support them, NHS England is leading work on violence prevention and reduction to provide better training and support for employers and their staff. In December 2024, NHS England published a refreshed Violence Prevention and Reduction Standard. The standard sets out guidance for trusts to help them identify risks, training requirements and crucially, what support must be made available to those staff affected.
Asked by: Luke Myer (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will take steps to (a) review the adequacy of juror compensation for loss of earnings, (b) ensure compensation reflects wages, (c) require employers to cover shortfalls and (d) provide additional support for self-employed jurors.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Jury service is an important civic duty, and we want to help jurors feel supported as they undertake this important job. 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 Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support kinship carers in (a) financial and (b) other ways.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland to the answer of 25 February 2025 to Question 31239.