Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has had discussions with the NHS on the potential merits of providing access to licensed gene therapies manufactured in the UK free of charge on the NHS.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have had no such discussions with NHS England. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes recommendations on whether all new medicines, including gene therapies, should be routinely funded by the National Health Service based on an assessment of their costs and benefits. The NHS is legally required to make funding available for NICE recommended treatments, usually within three months of the publication of final guidance. NICE has been able to recommend several gene therapies for use on the NHS, often subject to commercial agreements proposed through the NICE appraisal process, that are now available for the treatment of eligible patients.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking with Transport for London to help ensure the safe operation of pedicabs in London.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government is introducing the Pedicabs (London) Bill which will give Transport for London powers to regulate London’s pedicab industry. This Bill, which corrects a longstanding legal anomaly in London, will ensure that passengers, pedestrians and other road users can go about their daily business in the Capital safe in the knowledge that these vehicles and their operators are properly licensed and fully regulated.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average cost was for a (a) new hospital, (b) hospital upgrade, (c) MRI machine, (d) CT scanner and (e) GP appointment in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Will Quince
The following table shows information relating to the average costs of a new hospital, hospital upgrade, Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine, computerised tomography (CT) scan and a general practitioner (GP) appointment.
| Average cost |
New hospital | It is not possible to define an average cost of a new hospital, as the cost is dependent on significant variables relating to the type of hospital (and therefore complexity of plant, ventilation systems, etc.), size and its associated physical conditions. |
Hospital upgrade | The average cost of a scheme in the National Health Service upgrades programme is around £20 million, with significant variation across schemes on cost and type of upgrade. |
MRI machine | There are different specifications of machine and therefore a range of prices, but current purchase costs before the cost of fitting is approximately £1 million. |
CT scanner | There are different specifications of machine and therefore a range of prices, but current purchase costs before the cost of fitting is approximately £800,000. |
GP appointment | Data not held. |
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
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 protect leaseholders who are subject to RPI ground rents and who have not been within the scope of the Competition and Markets Authority’s work on ground rents.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The department conducted an Impact Assessment for the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022, which reported data on the level of ground rent in England and Wales. The Impact Assessment is available on the UK Parliament website here.
The English Housing Survey reports data on leaseholder charges, including data on the level of service charges and ground rents. The report is available from the department's website here.
The 2021 report by Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research also examined leasehold charges. It is published here.
The Government has legislated via the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 to protect future leaseholders from ground rents and we are due to bring forward further leasehold reforms later in this Parliament.
We understand the difficulties some existing leaseholders face with high and escalating ground rents. Unfair practices have no place in the housing market. This is why we asked the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to investigate potential mis-selling of homes and unfair terms in the leasehold sector.
The CMA have secured commitments benefiting over 20,000 leaseholders, including commitments to return doubling ground rent terms to original rates. These settlements will help to free thousands more leaseholders from unreasonable ground rent increases. The CMA continue to engage with a number of firms and we urge other developers to follow suit.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent progress his Department has made on amending provisions within the Housing Act 1988 on the treatment of long residential leases as rental tenancies when a leaseholder’s annual ground rent exceeds £1,000 in Greater London or £250 in the rest of England.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The government is committed to ensuring that where a leaseholder's ground rent exceeds £1,000 per year in Greater London or £250 per year outside London, they will not be subject to mandatory possession orders for arrears of ground rent in the future.
Whilst we cannot set out the precise details of legislation at this stage, we have been clear about our commitment to addressing this issue.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Departments response to the consultation entitled Child Maintenance: modernising and improving our service, published 18 June 2021, when he plans to implement the changes to secondary legislation set out in that response.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
In May 2022 the government made changes to the Child Support Information Regulations 2008 to expand information regulations to include private pension providers, academy proprietors, the Motor Insurers’ Bureau and all types of companies that offer, promote or sell investment management services or facilitate share trading. The government also updated all the Child Maintenance regulations that deal with communications, to enable the Secretary of State to serve notice or notifications to customers and third parties, such as employers, in writing by post or by electronic means.
We are planning to make changes in secondary legislation as parliamentary time allows, to bring into force changes to:
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to widen access to culture and heritage.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to ensuring as many people as possible can access our world-class museums, galleries and heritage sites, regardless of their background or where they live. Our Arm’s-Length Bodies deliver much of this good work.
For example, following a request from HM Government to ensure that the taxpayer subsidy it allocates is more equitably spread around the country, Arts Council England will be investing £446 million each year in 2023-2026 to support 990 organisations across the whole of England. This is more than ever before, and in more places than ever before.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the veracity of reports the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is providing training to the Russian military.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK agrees with the US assessment that Iranian personnel have been in Crimea assisting Russia. The UK condemns Iranian support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine: Iran's supply of drones is in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2231. On 20 October new UK sanctions targeted Iranian individuals and businesses responsible for supplying Russia with drones. We are working with France and Germany to support a UN investigation into the Iranian transfers, and we will continue to work with the international community to hold Russia and Iran to account.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of supporting further investment in the development of sustainable alternatives to neonicotinoids, in order to avoid their use in emergency authorisations in circumstances where diseases or pests cannot be controlled by other reasonable means.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Three neonicotinoids including the one covered by the sugar beet emergency authorisation, were banned by the EU in 2018, a decision the Government supported and so we have already moved decisively away from their use. British sugar is already developing alternative approaches to neonicotinoid seed treatments. It has stated that it may make applications for emergency authorisations for neonicotinoid seed treatments until 2023, by which time it intends to have developed alternative approaches. This includes the development of resistant plant varieties, measures to improve seed germination and new practices for growers.
Defra investment is not focused on the development of sustainable alternatives to specific pesticides such as neonicotinoids. The department has funded important research into other areas that will ensure pesticides can be used sustainably in the future.
We have funded research into the exposure of honeybees to pesticides, both over time and at national scale, through chemical analysis of pesticide residues found in honey samples. Using genetic techniques, such as DNA metabarcoding, this research can assess the plants foraged by exposed bees and highlight common pesticide exposure routes for this key pollinator species. We expect the results of this work to be published in the coming months.
We are also funding research exploring how we could further develop our monitoring to better understand the effects, and the impacts, of pesticides on pollinators, such as expanding residue assessments to include wild pollinator species of bumblebees and solitary bees.
Finally, in 2019 Defra commissioned the report 'Review of Evidence on Integrated Pest Management', which was published in 2020. This report assessed several themes including the effectiveness of IPM measures for reducing pesticide use, what combinations of IPM measures are most beneficial, and barriers and enablers to the uptake of IPM approaches. Research such as this will help Defra to meet its commitment to increase the uptake of Integrated Pest Management and sustainable crop protection, and therefore reduce any future reliance of emergency authorisation applications for neonicotinoids.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, in reference to the rising use of electrical vehicles on roads, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of increasing the use of (a) rumble strips and (b) other methods to make pedestrians aware of areas where pavements intersect roads.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Local highway authorities have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the highways network in their area. It is for each highway authority to decide on the most suitable materials to be used for surfacing, as well as the standards that should be applied, based upon their local knowledge and circumstances. The Department for Transport’s guidance on rumble strips is set out in section 5 of our Local Transport Note (LTN) 1/07 ‘Traffic Calming’, the LTN is available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-transport-notes.