Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what her planned timetable is for the implementation of the Women’s Health Strategy; and whether she plans to help tackle disparities in access to fertility services for LGBTQ+ couples.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Women’s Health Strategy is a 10-year strategy. On 17 January 2024, my Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, set out our priorities for implementing the Women’s Health Strategy in 2024. This statement is available at the following link:
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2024-01-17/hcws192
Improving access to fertility treatment is a priority in the Women’s Health Strategy. On 15 May 2024, we laid a Statutory Instrument to update the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act to allow gamete donation for people with HIV, who have an undetectable viral load. It will also eliminate additional screening costs for female same sex couples undertaking reciprocal, or shared motherhood, in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment. This is part of wider work to improve access to IVF for everyone, and ensure same-sex couples have the same rights as a man and woman when accessing fertility treatment.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of appointing a Commissioner for the tenant farming sector.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra is currently considering next steps following analysis of a Call for Evidence that it undertook with selected industry organisations and discussions with the Farm Tenancy Forum on the role of a Commissioner. We are committed to supporting the tenanted sector and continue to put their needs and voices at the heart of our decisions.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
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 help ensure effective implementation of the Agricultural Landlord and Tenant Code of Practice.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Agricultural Landlord and Tenant Code of Practice (the Code) was published following full endorsement by all organisations represented in the joint Government and industry Farm Tenancy Forum (the Forum) across the industry, including in farming media. Forum members are proactively embedding the Code within their organisations, as well as advising on other industry organisations’ uptake of the Code. The Forum Chair has written to land agents to establish their proposals for embedding the Code. Defra is working closely with the Forum to assess the response to the Code and its effectiveness.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of current legal protections afforded to tenant farmers.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra is working with the Farm Tenancy Forum to closely monitor and understand the application and impact of current legal protections afforded to tenant farmers. This will be further explored in Defra’s June Survey of Agriculture and Horticulture. We will keep the need to consult or legislate, or both, under review.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information his Department holds on the number for fire fighting (a) appliances and (b) vehicles owned by the Fire and Rescue Service over the last five financial years, by each region.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The latest available data (year ending March 2021) on the number of fire -fighting appliances and vehicles owned by the Fire and Rescue Service is published in FIRE1403, available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/634d2ed6e90e0731aa0fcc59/fire-statistics-data-tables-fire1403-201022.xlsx.
This provides the number of fire operational appliances (fire-fighting appliances) and non-operational appliances which includes the subcategory of vehicles. The data is provided by year for England, and for each fire and rescue service (FRS), designated as either metropolitan or non-metropolitan. We do not publish the data by region, but the numbers for each FRS can be aggregated to provide required regional level data.
The table below provides the number of operational and non-operational appliances in England between the years ending March 2017 and years ending March 2021.
Year ending March | Number of operational appliances | Number of non-operational appliances | Total number of appliances |
2017 | 3,201 | 5,831 | 9,032 |
2018 | 3,445 | 5,609 | 9,054 |
2019 | 3,352 | 5,740 | 9,092 |
2020 | 3,525 | 5,727 | 9,252 |
2021 | 3,608 | 5,729 | 9,337 |
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the news story entitled Cabinet Office Minister writes to councils over spending on Trade Union facility time, published by his Department on 10 April 2024, how many hours of civil servants' time were used on the formulation of the (a) research, (b) letter and (c) associated press release.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Cabinet Office wrote to 21 local authorities that, according to their self-reported facility time data, spent over 0.2% of their paybill on facility time. This information is available on gov.uk.
The Cabinet Office already publishes the information on facility time spend each year as part of the legislative requirements within the Trade Union (Facility Time Publication Requirements) Regulations 2017. This means that other than the issuing of the relevant letters, the time taken for which was negligible, there was very little other time spent on this particular exercise.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the news story entitled Cabinet Office Minister writes to councils over spending on Trade Union facility time, published by his Department on 10 April 2024, which local authorities were sent the letter.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Cabinet Office wrote to 21 local authorities that, according to their self-reported facility time data, spent over 0.2% of their paybill on facility time. This information is available on gov.uk.
The Cabinet Office already publishes the information on facility time spend each year as part of the legislative requirements within the Trade Union (Facility Time Publication Requirements) Regulations 2017. This means that other than the issuing of the relevant letters, the time taken for which was negligible, there was very little other time spent on this particular exercise.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of efforts to encourage other countries to ratify the Biodiversity beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The implementation and ratification of the Biodiversity beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement is the subject of active and positive discussions at international meetings, such as the Our Ocean Conference that was held in Greece on 15-17 April, the Commonwealth Ocean Ministers Meeting held in Cyprus on 18-19 April, and the upcoming High Level Ocean Action event in Costa Rica on 7-8 June. The government has also been actively engaging with other interested States and international organisations to exchange current policy thinking on BBNJ Agreement implementation and ratification. The FCDO is funding a project by the Commonwealth Secretariat to provide technical assistance to smaller Commonwealth members. The UK is aware that a substantial number of States are actively working to implement and ratify the BBNJ Agreement and encourage other States. A draft UN General Assembly Resolution (A/78/L.41) to establish a Preparatory Commission for the BBNJ Agreement will be voted on shortly. Once the Preparatory Commission is established it will prepare for the first Conference of the Parties to take place within the first year after entry into force of the Agreement (with entry into force taking place 120 days after the 60th ratification). The UK aims to ratify in time for the UN Ocean Conference in June 2025 and to play an active part in the first Conference of the Parties.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of hedgerow protections.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There has been no formal assessment made of the effectiveness of hedgerow protections. The majority of hedgerows on agricultural land were previously managed in accordance with rules contained in cross compliance that were conditioned to payments made through the Basic Payment Scheme and some agri-environment schemes. As we moved away from the Basic Payment Scheme at the end of last year, cross compliance and the hedgerow management rules also ended. The Government consulted last year on the best approach following the end of cross compliance and on the 16 April laid new regulations that, if approved, will put management practices for hedgerows on agricultural land into law.
Certain hedgerows are also protected from removal under the Hedgerows Regulations 1997 if they meet specific criteria. These regulations are enforced by Local Planning Authorities, who can utilise their understanding of the local context and landscape character.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to ensure holiday caravan owners have the same protections under the Mobile Homes Act 2013 as residential park home owners.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The protections under the Mobile Homes Act 1983 apply to park home owners living on caravan sites with planning permission for residential use.
The protections do not extend to owners of caravans on holiday caravan sites, because the planning permission granted permits the use of those sites for holiday and recreational purposes only.
Holiday caravan owners have protections under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.