Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help women who have experienced adult sexual exploitation.
Answered by Sarah Dines
The Government is fully committed to protecting victims from, and tackling, the devastating harm associated with adult sexual exploitation.
Adult sexual exploitation can occur across a spectrum of offending, from intimate partner violence, including domestic abuse and rape and sexual violence to serious and organised crime, including human trafficking. These offences are covered under a range of legislation.
Due to the complex nature of adult sexual exploitation, victims can access tailored support across different services depending on the harm they have experienced.
The Home Office is providing £1.36 million over three years to Changing Lives for their Net-Reach project, providing early intervention and targeted support for women and girls at high-risk of commercial online exploitation and the risk on online sexual harm. We are also providing over £180,000 in 2023/24 to Trevi Women to provide support to women with complex and multiple needs, including women seeking to exit on-street prostitution in Plymouth.
The Government funded Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract also provides victims of modern slavery access to safehouse accommodation and a dedicated support worker who provides information on their rights and facilitates access to wider statutory support services, specifically related to the victim’s experience – this can be gender specific, such as assistance with accessing sexual health services as a result of sexual exploitation.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to improve connectivity between the east and west of England.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
We are changing our approach to transport across the country with the announcement of Network North.
We are investing in schemes such as Northern Powerhouse Rail which will connect some of the North’s biggest towns and cities with faster, more frequent electrified services; East West Rail, a new railway line that will provide east-west connectivity across the Oxford-Cambridge region; improvements to the A50/A500 corridor; and the A66 project between M6 junction 40 at Penrith and A1(M) at Scotch Corner which will widen to dual-carriageway standard the remaining six single-carriageway sections and upgrade major junctions.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of giving greater powers to residents who oppose solar farm developments in their area.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
It has not proved possible to respond to my hon. Friend in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department is taking steps to help reduce the number of ultra-processed foods that are consumed by the public.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that UK elections are not affected by political interference by (a) China and (b) other countries.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
It is, and always will be, an absolute priority for this government to protect our democratic and electoral processes against foreign interference.
Last year, the Prime Minister established the Defending Democracy Taskforce to protect the democratic integrity of the UK from threats of foreign influence. Its mission is to reduce the risk to the UK’s democratic processes, institutions and society, and ensure that these are secure and resilient to threats of foreign interference.
In addition, the National Security Act 2023 creates a new offence of foreign interference. This will make it an offence to illegitimately influence the UK’s democratic processes and elected officials on behalf of a foreign power. The offence will also significantly increase sentences for electoral offences if they are carried out on behalf of a foreign power. Related measures in the Online Safety Bill will require digital platforms to proactively take action against a wide range of state-sponsored disinformation and state-linked online interference, including digitally manipulated content, where this has the aim of interfering with UK elections.
The Elections Act 2022 strengthened three important components of the political finance framework: fairness, transparency and controls against foreign spending. Since its introduction, the Government has restricted foreign campaign spending at elections and introduced a new requirement on political parties to declare their assets and liabilities over £500 upon registration. Foreign donations (and channelling foreign money) are already illegal. The Act also ensures greater transparency on digital campaigning, through the introduction of digital imprints.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will take steps to end the use of PFI contracts in schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
It has not proved possible to respond to my hon. Friend in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if his Department will provide funding to reopen the Leamside rail line.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Leamside Line is a Transport North East led project. The Government is giving locally elector mayors the means to spend on the priorities they determine are right for the parts of the country they represent, rather than taking all decisions in Westminster. We have made a promise to provide around £1.8 billion funding to the North East and they can then choose which schemes they allocate the funding to.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department is taking steps to help ensure that appropriate guidance is provided to new pet owners.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Pet owners’ responsibilities are laid down in several Government codes of practice for animal welfare, which are available here: Animal welfare legislation: protecting pets - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The codes summarise important information for owners and helps them to make decisions about how best to care for their animals.
Under the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018, licensed pet sellers are required to provide prospective owners information setting out how the animal’s health and welfare needs should be met.
In addition, my Department maintains a national communications campaign (Petfished) to raise awareness of issues associated with low-welfare and illegal supply of cats and dogs. This includes providing clear signposting on where responsible breeders and rehoming centres can be found and encouraging prospective buyers to research the seller thoroughly before they visit and decide to purchase.
Finally, my Department has also developed dog safety fact sheets in collaboration with the Child Accident Prevention Trust and animal welfare organisations to encourage safe interactions between families and dogs.
I welcome the efforts of veterinarians, animal welfare charities, breeders and other practitioners in sharing these sources of information with pet owners.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Government's figures on covid-19 cases in the UK, whether that figure includes results from all types of covid-19 testing kits.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The ‘Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the UK’ dashboard provides a summary of key information about the pandemic. This includes levels of infections, the impact on health in the United Kingdom and on measures taken to respond. The UK Health Security Agency also publishes the National Influenza and COVID-19 Report which includes the number of episodes of infection and test positivity over time.
Case numbers include results from Pillar 1 (polymerase chain reaction) testing, which represents tests undertaken for healthcare purposes and in public health laboratories. They also include results from people who have reported a positive lateral flow test from the National Health Service on GOV.UK. Lateral flow tests that are privately purchased cannot currently be registered on GOV.UK
Changes to testing policies over time affect surveillance data. Fewer tests being performed, and tests limited to certain settings, would need to be considered when interpreting surveillance data. Nonetheless, surveillance metrics based on current testing continue to provide useful indicators of recent trends and disease acuity.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
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 reduce the prevalence of smoking.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Smoking rates in England have been consistently falling and are currently at 12.7%, according to 2022 data from the Office for National Statistics.
On 4 October 2023, the Prime Minister unveiled plans to introduce a new law to stop children who turn 14 years old this year or younger from ever legally being sold cigarettes, in a bid to create the first ‘smokefree generation’. This announcement was accompanied with additional funding, including £70 million extra per year to fund local stop smoking services and £5 million this year and then £15 million per year thereafter to fund national stop smoking marketing campaigns.
This is in addition to a range of other measures which we announced in April 2023, including a new national swap to stop scheme to provide vapes to one million smokers to help them to quit, and an evidence-based financial incentives scheme to help all pregnant smokers to quit.
We are confident that the new measures announced by the Prime Minister, in addition to the actions we are already taking, will set us on course to both achieve our bold ambition to be smokefree by 2030 and create the first smokefree generation.