Asked by: Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when his Department plans to respond to the correspondence of 30 August and 27 September 2022 from the hon. Member for Lichfield on legislation on septic tanks.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
A reply was sent to the hon. Member on 14 th October 2022.
Asked by: Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of linking HMS Anson with the City of Lichfield in the context of Thomas Anson having been the first Earl of Lichfield and the continuation of that line.
Answered by Sarah Atherton
I welcome the constituency interest and the proposal will be considered in the regular rounds of affiliation planning, noting that the Royal Navy seeks to affiliate ships with communities across the country over time, which can be made at borough, town, city or county level.
Asked by: Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when his Department plans to award a contract for the supply of ministerial cars; and what assessment he has made of the potential merits of awarding the contract to a UK-based car manufacturer.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Government Car Service (GCS) contracts in this financial year have already been let for cars due for replacement.
Contracts were let and delivered by Jaguar Land Rover leaving one outstanding contract with Ford Motor Co. for vehicles needed to fulfil special operational requirements.
GCS recognise the merits of awarding contracts to a UK based manufacturer and the positive effect it has on the supply chain. It is also a great promotion of British manufacturing when Ministers are seen in UK manufacturers products.
Asked by: Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
When she next plans to meet her counterpart in the government of Israel.
Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The UK and Israel share a thriving relationship, working together on bilateral priorities, as well as regional issues of mutual concern, including the Middle East Peace Process. I last met my Israeli counterpart, Deputy Foreign Minister Roll, during my visit to Israel in June.
Asked by: Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of (a) recent events in and (b) access to (i) international journalists, (ii) human rights organisations and (iii) telephone and internet connections in the Republic of Karakalpakstan.
Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The UK is saddened by the loss of life that occurred during recent events in Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan. We understand that initially peaceful protests against plans to change Karakalpakstan's autonomous status within Uzbekistan developed into violent unrest with casualties among civilians and law enforcement personnel. The situation now seems calm. Although there are reports of internet and telephone communications being blocked, we understand that communications in Karakalpakstan have mostly been reinstated, and international and local journalists have been given limited access to the region. The Uzbek authorities have announced an official investigation involving Parliament and civil society.
On 7 July, Lord Ahmad raised the unrest in Karakalpakstan with the Uzbek Deputy Foreign Minister and the British Ambassador and his team in Tashkent are also in contact with the Uzbek authorities. We have been clear in our communications that the right to peaceful protest and respect for media freedom should be protected. In discussion of these events in multilateral fora, we urged the Uzbek authorities to adhere to their international commitments and due process, as they seek to understand what happened. We will continue to monitor developments closely.
Asked by: Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether shire counties, including Staffordshire, can receive devolved additional powers without an elected mayor; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of implementing other governance models to enable shire counties to exercise those powers.
Answered by Lia Nici
For all places across England, including shire counties, who are interested in pursuing a new devolution deal, a mayor will not be a pre-requisite. However, we do believe that high-profile, directly elected leaders (such as a mayor) will be most effective for levelling up: providing a single point of accountability to local citizens, acting as a champion for their areas and attracting investment and opportunity to their places. As such, the most comprehensive devolution package will only be available to areas with a directly elected mayor. The devolution framework - published in the Levelling Up White Paper - sets a clear and consistent set of devolution pathways for places, enabling them to widen and deepen their devolved powers subject to meeting certain pre-conditions.
Asked by: Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his letter of 6 June 2022, reference PO-1405720, if he will make it his policy not to be a signatory to any treaty with the World Health Organisation which would enable instructions to be given to the Government on when lockdowns may or may not be imposed in any future pandemic; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The Government supports a new international legally binding instrument to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
The process for developing this new pandemic instrument will be led by the member countries of the World Health Organization, including the United Kingdom. The instrument would become binding if and when the UK accepts it in accordance with our constitutional process. The UK would remain in control of any future domestic decisions about national restrictions or other measures and would be subject to Parliamentary approval.
Asked by: Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were waiting for the issue of a passport (a) in each of the last 12 months for which data are available and (b) in each month in 2019.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Since April 2021, people have been advised to allow up to ten weeks when applying for their British passport as more than 5 million people delayed applying due to the pandemic. The vast majority of all passport applications continue to be dealt with well within 10 weeks.
Her Majesty’s Passport Office carries work in progress across the year as part of normal operational planning, and approximately 250,000 passport applications are being processed each week.
Asked by: Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what (a) inspections and (b) other steps his Department is taking to ensure that (i) pests and (ii) diseases are not imported into the UK from (A) agricultural, (B) horticultural, (C) meat products and (D) other goods originating from the EU.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Biosecurity is a top priority for the Government, not only to protect consumers, but also to ensure that trading partners and industry have strong assurance of the UK's standards of food safety, animal and plant health.
Since 1 January 2021, the UK has put in place strict biosecurity controls on the highest risk imports of animals, animal products, plants and plant products from the EU. These controls on the highest risk goods will remain in place. We constantly review whether further safeguards are needed and have a scientific process to assess and respond to changing biosecurity threats.
Existing pre-notification requirements and the four-hour derogation for pre-notification will continue for all products of animal origin. Traders must continue to pre-notify to maintain traceability of imports and to allow UK authorities to collect essential data to inform design decisions. Traceability is vital for identifying consignments posing potential risk and allows us to properly manage any biosecurity incidents.
Asked by: Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Rwanda policy for asylum seekers, whether the Government provides funding to Care4Calais; what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the recent comments made by Care4Calais on her Rwanda policy for asylum seekers; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
There is no record of Care4Calais as a grant recipient for the Home Office.
There is a global migration crisis, and we must look to new world leading solutions to tackle this issue. We are fully committed to the Migration and Economic Development Partnership with Rwanda. It fully complies with international and national law and we will defend it robustly.