Asked by: Mark Field (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Government's announcement of 21 August 2019 that ports and local areas will receive £9 million of funding to prepare for the UK leaving the EU, how much funding will be allocated to the London Port Health Authority.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
Across 2017/18 and 2018/19, my Department has made available £77 million to help local areas prepare for Brexit. This includes £60 million that has been distributed between all local authorities in England, including £314,952 to the City of London, and £3.14 million that was allocated to nineteen councils in March 2019 to increase capacity to plan for and accommodate changes in and around ports of entry. In August 2019 £5.01 million was announced to further support councils which either have, or are near to, a major air, land or sea port to ensure they continue to operate efficiently (£2.61 million to councils in Kent and £2.4 million to councils outside of Kent), and £4 million was allocated to Local Resilience Forums to support them with their core administration costs for preparing, testing, assuring and delivering plans for supporting the delivery of Brexit. This funding is for councils and Local Resilience Forums to boost their capacity and help them put in place measures that will protect the services that residents, communities and businesses rely upon.
Asked by: Mark Field (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the UK will be a listed country for animal health in relation to (a) ungulates, (b) equines (c) dogs, (e) cats and (f) ferrets in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
i) Ungulates, Equines and commercial movement of cats, dogs and ferrets
The United Kingdom submitted its application to allow exports of live animals and animal products to the European Commission in January 2019.
The UK continues to undertake constructive engagement with the European Commission on third country listing, and has already provided the necessary assurances requested by the European Commission in order for the relevant Committee to consider listing the UK as a third country for exports of live animals and animal products. This would ensure that exports of ungulates (hoofed animals), equines and commercial movement of cats, dogs and ferrets to the EU would continue in a no deal.
The relevant Committee meeting to vote on our listed status is expected to be scheduled and meet ahead of exit date.
ii) Non-commercial movement of cats, dogs and ferrets
Non-commercial movement of cats, dogs and ferrets is covered by the EU Pet Travel Scheme which has 3 categorisations of third country: unlisted, Part 1 listed and Part 2 listed.
Third countries can apply to the European Commission to be listed under the EU Pet Travel Scheme. The United Kingdom submitted its application to allow the UK to become a Part 1 listed third country under Annex II of the EU Pet Travel Regulations to the European Commission in January 2019. It is for the Commission to consider our application for listed status. The UK is likely to be treated as an unlisted country under the EU Pet Travel Scheme if it leaves without a deal.
Asked by: Mark Field (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to EU Official Control Regulation 2017/625 due to come into force on 14 December 2019, whether the Government has contingency plans to process consignments of live animals in the event that they are returned to the UK after being refused entry into the EU if the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The Government has strong plans in place to manage issues or risks arising from the import or export of animals and agri-food products. This includes managing the risk of high risk journeys, measures to safeguard welfare and processes required if animals or goods are rejected at EU borders.
If the UK is listed and the exported animals meet standards at least equivalent to those required for production and trade between the Member States and consignments are in compliance with the relevant Official Controls Regulation (OCR) and associated tertiary legislation, then in principle those animals should not be refused entry.
Where the consignments are not in compliance with the relevant requirements and present a risk to animal and human health, the OCR and tertiary legislation provide for a range of measures ranging from quarantine (pending further decision of the competent authorities at Border Control Posts), destruction of consignments, special treatment and re-despatch. The regime for these measures is essentially the same as the one provided under Regulation 882/2004.
UK goods, including live animals that are exported to the EU in the event the UK leaves the EU without a deal, and rejected at an EU Border Control Post can travel back to the UK on the same documents issued for their journey. The consignment will need pre-notification to the UK of its return, but will be able to return to the UK via any port of entry and will not be subject to routine veterinary checks at the port of entry.
Transporters of animals have a legal duty to protect the welfare of their animals and should only plan journeys if they are sure that the journey is viable and compliant with welfare requirements, for instance on maximum journey times.
They will need to check that all certification is in place and all EU import conditions are met to minimise the likelihood of being returned.
Asked by: Mark Field (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of unlicensed pedicabs on London's reputation as a tourist destination.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The Department for Transport has received representations from a number of businesses located in the West End of London who are concerned about the impacts of pedicabs on their customers, mainly in respect of congestion and anti-social behaviour. We are working with Transport for London to develop legislation to allow the Mayor of London to regulate the pedicab trade.
Asked by: Mark Field (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with Transport for London on regulation of pedicabs.
Answered by Andrew Jones
Ministers and officials have regular meetings with representatives of Transport for London at which various subjects are discussed, including pedicabs. The Department has been working closely with Transport for London on proposals for legislation to enable the Mayor of London to regulate the pedicab trade.
Asked by: Mark Field (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the estimated cost implications are of the proposed closure of congenital heart disease services at Royal Brompton Hospital, including (a) the cost of expanding provision elsewhere and (b) transferring staff and services.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Congenital heart disease services are paid for through tariff. Therefore, if NHS England proposals were to be implemented, and this resulted in changes to the flow of patients, funding for treatment would follow the patients.
NHS England is working with providers to seek assurances of their ability to accept additional patients if required to do so. This includes considering the effect of the potential changes on staff and to understand the cost implications of the changes which it is proposing.
Asked by: Mark Field (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many paediatric intensive care unit beds there are in central London; and how many of those beds are at the Royal Brompton Hospital.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The information requested is in the table below. NHS England publishes monthly data on critical care bed capacity, including the number of paediatric intensive care beds. The data reports the numbers of beds that are open, as a snapshot, at midnight on the last Thursday of the month.
Number of paediatric intensive care beds in central London and the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust open on the last Thursday of the reporting period, September 2016
Organisation | Number of Paediatric intensive care beds |
Central London of which: | 102 |
Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust | 24 |
Source: Critical care bed capacity and urgent operations cancelled, NHS England
Asked by: Mark Field (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the NHS new congenital heart disease review, how many hospitals in England and Wales meet each of the Government's recommended standards for congenital heart disease services.
Answered by Philip Dunne
NHS England assessed the 13 hospitals that provide level 1 surgical congenital heart disease (CHD) services against 14 requirements, most of which encompassed more than one of the standards. It also assessed nine hospitals that provide level 2 specialist medical CHD centres against seven requirements. Most of these requirements encompassed more than one of the standards, therefore the tables attached show the number of hospitals that met each of the requirements at the time of NHS England’s assessment rather than each of the standards.
NHS England’s proposals for service change considered not only whether a hospital met the requirements at the time of the assessment but also whether it would be able to meet the requirements in the future. It is at those hospitals where NHS England considered that it was unlikely that the requirements would be met in the timescale required that proposals for change have been made.
Hospitals in Wales are a matter for the devolved administration in Wales.
Asked by: Mark Field (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions (a) he and (b) officials of his Department have had with Transport for London on the (i) timetable and (ii) provisions of legislation on pedicabs in London to ensure that they are able to regulate swiftly once primary legislation is in place.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The need for urgent action on pedicabs was discussed at the Secretary of State’s meeting with the Mayor on 13 June, and at Lord Ahmad’s meeting with the Deputy Mayor for Transport on 16 June. Officials from the Department for Transport have had regular meetings with their opposite numbers in Transport for London to ensure that TfL are ready to respond as soon as the necessary primary legislation is enacted.
Asked by: Mark Field (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the National Crime Agency's National Referral Mechanism Statistics - End of year summary 2015, of the 1,104 potential victims of trafficking who presented in the Metropolitan Police Force area in 2015 (a) how many came from EU countries, (b) from which region each such person came and (c) where each such person was first recruited for trafficking.
Answered by Karen Bradley
Of the 1,104 potential victims referred to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) in 2015 that presented in the Metropolitan Police Force area, 68 were EU nationals. The countries of origin of these EU nationals were: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and the UK. Information on the region of origin and location of recruitment of potential victims is not available.
All 1,104 potential victims who presented in the Metropolitan Police Force Area in 2015 were referred to the NRM by a first responder organisation. A breakdown of referrals is available from published NRM statistics on the National Crime Agency website and can be found here: www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/publications/national-referral-mechanism-statistics. Breakdowns of data about the London boroughs where potential victims presented are not available.
The Salvation Army and its subcontractors provide support in different locations within England and Wales for adult potential victims given a positive reasonable grounds decision. Following a reflection and recovery period, victims are assisted to move on within the UK or voluntarily return to their home country. The Home Office does not hold data on what happens to individuals once they leave the service.