Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps his Department is taking to help support community pubs.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government values the important contribution that pubs make to our culture and the UK economy, including fostering a sense of place and community.
Under the new alcohol duty system, Draught Relief provides a 9.2% duty reduction on draught beer and cider products below 8.5% alcohol by volume. This ensures that there will always be a lower duty rate for draught products to recognise the value of our great British pubs. This means that every pint, in every pub across the UK pays less duty than their supermarket equivalent - this is the Government's Brexit Pubs Guarantee.
In addition, at Autumn Statement 2023, the government announced it will extend the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure relief scheme at 75 per cent, up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business for 2024-25. Around 230,000 retail, hospitality and leisure properties, including pubs, will be eligible for this relief, a tax cut worth nearly £2.4bn.
The Government is also funding a wide range of community assets, including pubs, through the Community Ownership Fund. To date, the Fund has allocated £71.3m to 257 projects, including many rural pubs.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps his Department is taking to support the hospitality and tourism sectors.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to supporting the hospitality and tourism sectors, which provide a significant contribution to the UK economy and society. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, over £37 billion has been provided to the tourism, leisure and hospitality sectors in the form of grants, loans and tax breaks.
At Autumn Statement 2023, the government announced it will extend the business rates Retail, Hospitality and Leisure relief scheme at 75 per cent, up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business for 2024-25. Around 230,000 retail, hospitality and leisure properties will be eligible for this relief, a tax cut worth nearly £2.4 billion.
Over this Spending Review period – the Government has allocated over £100m to the British Tourist Authority to support VisitBritain and VisitEngland with marketing activity to promote Britain as a destination.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps his Department is taking to help support the brewery industry.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government values the important contribution that the brewery industry makes to our economy and society. The new duty system, introduced on 1 August 2023, contains many benefits for brewers, including two new reliefs.
The new Small Producer Relief means that small producers now see reduced duty rates on all products below 8.5 per cent alcohol by volume (ABV) up to a production threshold.
The new Draught Relief means that all alcoholic products under 8.5 per cent ABV which are sold in containers of 20 litres or more and are sold to connect to a dispense system qualify for reduced duty rates. This relief provides a reduction in the duty on draught beer and cider products by 9.2 per cent.
As with all tax policy, the Government keeps the alcohol duty system under review as part of the annual Budget process.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
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 funding a redevelopment of the Animal Plant and Health Agency Headquarters in Weybridge.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) provides high-quality surveillance, preparedness, detection and response to biosecurity threats from animal diseases - both those that might affect our ability to trade and those which pose a threat to animal and human health. To keep APHA’s Weybridge facility fit for purpose, support a major programme of essential maintenance, and secure the long-term future of critical capability, Defra established the Science Capability in Animal Health (SCAH) programme. This is backed by almost £400 million of funding in the current Spending Review period, including £200 million investment for SCAH and £197 million for critical works on site. The work which has commenced to safeguard and enhance the Weybridge site will enable its excellent scientists to continue at the forefront of science which protects the country, boosting our resilience against animal diseases.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
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 detect the illegal carrying of meat products into the UK.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
African swine fever (ASF) cases in Germany in 2022 represented new “jumps” in disease distribution towards the United Kingdom, following similar movements elsewhere in Europe. While we consider that the overall risk of entry of ASF virus into the UK from all combined pathways remains at medium, the particular pathway of human-mediated transport of non-commercial, infected products from the EU is considered to be high risk (please see the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s risk assessments for more detail).
As a result, we announced controls restricting the movement of pork and pork products into Great Britain (GB) to help safeguard Britain's pigs (please see further information here).
Travellers are no longer allowed to bring pork or pork products weighing over two kilograms into GB, unless they are produced to the EU’s commercial standards. The controls, which came into force in September 2022, strengthen the standards for bringing pork and pork products into GB from the EU and EFTA states.
This measure helps limit possibly infected pig meat being brought into GB through various means, such as in passengers’ luggage or in vehicles. The measure does not apply to commercial imports, which remain unaffected by the control.
There are Defra-sponsored checks carried out under the ASF safeguard measure and enforced by Port Health Authority officers and Border Force officers at ports and airports.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
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 level of risk posed to the UK by the spread of African Swine Fever.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
African swine fever (ASF) cases in Germany in 2022 represented new “jumps” in disease distribution towards the United Kingdom, following similar movements elsewhere in Europe. While we consider that the overall risk of entry of ASF virus into the UK from all combined pathways remains at medium, the particular pathway of human-mediated transport of non-commercial, infected products from the EU is considered to be high risk (please see the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s risk assessments for more detail).
As a result, we announced controls restricting the movement of pork and pork products into Great Britain (GB) to help safeguard Britain's pigs (please see further information here).
Travellers are no longer allowed to bring pork or pork products weighing over two kilograms into GB, unless they are produced to the EU’s commercial standards. The controls, which came into force in September 2022, strengthen the standards for bringing pork and pork products into GB from the EU and EFTA states.
This measure helps limit possibly infected pig meat being brought into GB through various means, such as in passengers’ luggage or in vehicles. The measure does not apply to commercial imports, which remain unaffected by the control.
There are Defra-sponsored checks carried out under the ASF safeguard measure and enforced by Port Health Authority officers and Border Force officers at ports and airports.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help prevent the spread of African Swine Fever to the UK.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
African swine fever (ASF) cases in Germany in 2022 represented new “jumps” in disease distribution towards the United Kingdom, following similar movements elsewhere in Europe. While we consider that the overall risk of entry of ASF virus into the UK from all combined pathways remains at medium, the particular pathway of human-mediated transport of non-commercial, infected products from the EU is considered to be high risk (please see the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s risk assessments for more detail).
As a result, we announced controls restricting the movement of pork and pork products into Great Britain (GB) to help safeguard Britain's pigs (please see further information here).
Travellers are no longer allowed to bring pork or pork products weighing over two kilograms into GB, unless they are produced to the EU’s commercial standards. The controls, which came into force in September 2022, strengthen the standards for bringing pork and pork products into GB from the EU and EFTA states.
This measure helps limit possibly infected pig meat being brought into GB through various means, such as in passengers’ luggage or in vehicles. The measure does not apply to commercial imports, which remain unaffected by the control.
There are Defra-sponsored checks carried out under the ASF safeguard measure and enforced by Port Health Authority officers and Border Force officers at ports and airports.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the Border Target Operating Model on biosecurity.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Border Targeting Operating Model (BTOM) successfully delivers a science based dynamic approach to border controls and is designed to change responsively to ensure controls are targeted where risk is greatest. This will provide assurance to our trading partners and the UK consumer that imported food and feed products meet our high safety standards. This approach seeks to bring in critical biosecurity controls as soon as possible, but uses a global risk-based model, data and technology to reduce the burden on businesses wherever possible.
Health certification will provide assurance that an official vet or plant health inspector in the exporting country has checked the goods and confirmed that they are free of pests or diseases and comply with GB’s import health requirements. Inspections increase our surveillance capability to intercept non-compliant goods, detect emerging pest or disease threats, and identify any problems with the certification process in exporting countries. Local authority food standards officials have found examples of pork imported from EU countries with widespread African Swine Fever (ASF). Such countries are not allowed to export pork under EU rules due to the biosecurity threat posed by ASF. The controls in the BTOM, specifically the requirement for Export Health Certificates, would have prevented this: an official vet would refuse to certify such a consignment.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to reduce waiting times for (a) urgent and (b) non-urgent referrals of patients from General Practice to hospitals in (i) Cumbria and (ii) England.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Cutting waiting lists is one of this Prime Minister’s top priorities. We are making good progress on tackling the longest waits, and ensuring patients get the care they need when they need it. That is why we have published the elective recovery plan, which sets clear ambitions to eliminate long waits for planned National Health Service treatment. The overall vision is to eradicate waits of longer than a year for elective care by March 2025.
To facilitate this across elective services, we are increasing activity, with plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25. This will expand capacity though creating a new network of community diagnostic centres, including three in Cumbria, and maximising all available independent sector capacity. We are managing demand through specialised advice in primary care and giving patients more control over where they receive their care. We are also increasing productivity through transforming outpatient services, developing new surgical hubs to increase theatre productivity, and working actively with trusts to support and challenge their performance.
The latest published figures show that the 62-day backlog has fallen 36% since its peak in the pandemic. The NHS introduced the Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS), which aims to ensure patients have cancer diagnosed or ruled out within 28 days of urgent suspected cancer referral from a general practice or screening services. Latest FDS performance was at 71.9% in November 2023 against the national standard of 75%.
To achieve the FDS target, NHS England are streamlining cancer pathways, including timed cancer pathways, to speed up diagnosis in the three key cancer pathways: lower gastrointestinal, prostate, and skin.
We are also implementing non symptom specific pathways for patients who present with non-specific symptoms, or combinations of non-specific symptoms, that can indicate several different cancers.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to support General Practices at risk of closure.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
General Practices (GPs) close for a variety of reasons, including mergers or retirement. A reduction in GP numbers does not mean a reduction in the quality of care. When a GP does close, patients are informed of the closure and advised to register at another local practice of their choice within their area.
The closure of a GP surgery is an issue that is considered and decided upon by local commissioners, following an application from a GP provider. It is for local commissioners to determine what services and care pathways are put in place, in order to best serve the needs of their patient population.