Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will make it his policy to establish additional public holidays to mark (a) St Andrew's Day, (b) St David's Day, (c) St George's Day and (d) St Patrick's Day.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The current pattern of bank and public holidays is well established and accepted. The Government has no plans to change it.
Northern Ireland and Scotland have additional bank holidays for St Patrick’s Day and St Andrew’s Day respectively.
While an additional bank holiday may benefit some communities and sectors, the cost to the economy of an additional bank holiday remains considerable. The latest analysis estimates the cost to the UK economy for a one-off bank holiday to be around £2bn.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent discussions he has had with Ofcom on progress by the Small but Risky taskforce on tackling the risk posed by dangerous online platforms.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Online Safety Act’s illegal content and, where relevant, child safety duties, will apply to services of all sizes. In September 2024, a public exchange of letters between the Secretary of State and Ofcom CEO outlined information about the taskforce: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets/resources/documents/about-ofcom/public-correspondence/2024/letter-from-dame-melanie-dawes-to-the-secretary-of-state-11-september-2024.pdf?v=380026. The taskforce is developing and delivering a workplan focusing on high priority themes such as terror, hate and offences against women and girls. Should small but risky services choose not to engage and there is evidence of non-compliance, Ofcom will undertake enforcement action.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to tackle the risk posed by small high-risk online platforms.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Online Safety Act’s illegal content and, where relevant, child safety duties, will apply to services of all sizes. In September 2024, a public exchange of letters between the Secretary of State and Ofcom CEO outlined information about the taskforce: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets/resources/documents/about-ofcom/public-correspondence/2024/letter-from-dame-melanie-dawes-to-the-secretary-of-state-11-september-2024.pdf?v=380026. The taskforce is developing and delivering a workplan focusing on high priority themes such as terror, hate and offences against women and girls. Should small but risky services choose not to engage and there is evidence of non-compliance, Ofcom will undertake enforcement action.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will take steps to encourage social media and search platforms to exceed the requirements of the Online Safety Act 2023 in reducing access to harmful suicide and self-harm content.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government engages regularly with social media and search services and is clear that they should be taking action now to make their services safe for users.
Under the Online Safety Act, in-scope services must prevent all users from encountering illegal suicide and self-harm content, and children from legal content which encourages, promotes or provides instructions for suicide and self-harm.
The government are committed to continuing to engage with those with lived experience and keeping online safety policy under review and will take whatever steps are needed to protect the public.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he has plans to consult people with lived experience of self-harm and suicide on the implementation of the Online Safety Act 2023.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government engages regularly with social media and search services and is clear that they should be taking action now to make their services safe for users.
Under the Online Safety Act, in-scope services must prevent all users from encountering illegal suicide and self-harm content, and children from legal content which encourages, promotes or provides instructions for suicide and self-harm.
The government are committed to continuing to engage with those with lived experience and keeping online safety policy under review and will take whatever steps are needed to protect the public.
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 steps his Department is taking to support hospices in City of Durham constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care. We are working at great pace to get this year’s funding to hospices as soon as possible. We are currently finalising the delivery mechanisms, and are pleased that Hospice UK is standing ready to distribute the money to hospices throughout England, including to hospices in the City of Durham constituency.
We are also providing £26 million of revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices in 2025/26. NHS England is currently making decisions on the allocation and administration mechanisms for that funding and hopes to communicate plans to the sector later this month.
Earlier this month, I met with key palliative and end of life care, including hospice, stakeholders on 3 February to discuss the long-term sustainability of palliative and end of life care, within the context of our 10-Year Health Plan.
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 assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of access to NHS dental services in City of Durham constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Dental Statistics - England 2023/24, published by the NHS Business Services Authority on 22 August 2024, is available at the following link:
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/dental-england/dental-statistics-england-202324
In the NHS Northeast and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board, which includes the City of Durham constituency, 45% of adults were seen by a National Health Service dentist in the previous 24 months to June 2024, compared to 40% in England. In addition, 58% of children were seen by an NHS dentist in the previous 12 months to June 2024, compared to 56% in England.
The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access NHS dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to support public libraries in City of Durham constituency.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Public libraries are funded by local authorities and each local authority is responsible for assessing the needs of their local communities and designing a library service to meet those needs within available resources.
The Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 requires the Secretary of State to “superintend and promote the improvement of the public library service provided by local authorities in England”. To assist this function the department regularly monitors and reviews changes to local authority library service provision, and engages with local authorities to discuss issues related to their respective library service.
I understand that as of 31 December 2023 the statutory library provision delivered by Durham County Council was 39 local authority-run static libraries and a mobile library service. Seven of these static libraries are located in the City of Durham constituency.
The government is committed to getting local government back on its feet. The final Local Government Finance Settlement for 2025-26 makes available over £69 billion for local government, which is a 6.8% cash terms increase on 2024-25.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to support women born in the 1950s affected by State Pension age changes in City of Durham constituency.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
We are committed to supporting pensioners – with millions set to see their yearly basic State Pension rise by around £1,500, or their new State Pension rise by around £1,900, over this parliament, through our commitment to the Triple Lock.
Pension Credit provides vital financial support for pensioners, including women. It tops up state and private pensions to a guaranteed weekly minimum - the Standard Minimum Guarantee, which, for single pensioners, is set to increase from £218.15 to £227.10 in April 2025.
In order to maximise take-up, we have been running the biggest ever Pension Credit campaign because we want all eligible pensioners to claim what they are entitled to.
The Government offers further direct financial help to low-income pensioners through the Warm Home Discount – and the Department for Work and Pensions provides Cold Weather Payments (in England & Wales), and discretionary support through the Household Support Fund in England to support those most in need.
For those people who are unable to work but who are not yet eligible for pensioner benefits because of their age, financial support is available through the welfare system.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will take steps to ensure the proposed offence of (a) encouraging or (b) assisting self-harm will not criminalise (i) people or (ii) charities providing support to affected people; whether she plans to issue guidance and training on the proposed offence to (A) police and (B) prosecutors; and if she will consult people with lived experience before drafting legislation.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Section 184 of the Online Safety Act 2023 gave partial effect to a Law Commission recommendation to create an offence of encouraging or assisting self-harm. The proposed new offence of encouraging or assisting serious self-harm intends to replace (in so far as it extends to England and Wales and Northern Ireland) that offence with a broader offence that can be committed by any means of communication, and in any other way (including, for example, direct assistance through the provision of bladed articles with which to self-harm). The person must have intent to encourage or assist the other person to seriously self-harm.
As with the current offence in the Online Safety Act, sharing experiences of self-harm or simply discussing the issue (including glorifying or glamourising self-harm), without an intention that another should seriously self-harm, will not be a criminal offence. We recognise the concerns of those offering support services that capturing such behaviour would potentially risk criminalising vulnerable people who merely seek to share their experiences of self-harm with no intention of encouraging others to self-harm.
The offence in the Online Safety Act comes from a Law Commission recommendation following a wide-ranging consultation and we will work with criminal justice agencies and others with an interest to update existing guidance and training to reflect the proposed expansion of the offence to include direct assistance to self-harm.