Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
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 progress of talks on procuring medicines between the NHS and Bio Marin.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
We have made no such assessment. Discussions about commercial agreements for medicines are rightly held between NHS England as an independent body and the manufacturer concerned. The Department plays no role in such discussions.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
What steps he is taking to improve support and treatment for people with a gambling addiction.
Answered by Matt Hancock
We want to reduce gambling-related harm, protect the vulnerable and make sure that those experiencing problems are getting the help they need. The NHS Long Term Plan set out our commitment to invest in expanding National Health Service specialist clinics to help more people with serious gambling problems.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what representations he has received on the updated guidelines on relationships and sex education.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department conducted a consultation on the draft regulations, statutory guidance and regulatory impact assessment for relationships education, relationships and sex education and health education between July and November 2018.
The Department was contacted by over 40,000 individuals and organisations during the consultation process. Prior to the consultation, the key decisions were informed by a thorough engagement process. The public call for evidence received over 23,000 responses and the Department engaged directly with 90 organisations, including parents, young people, headteachers, teachers, governors, subject specialists, teaching unions, charities and faith groups.
The Government response to the call for evidence can be found here: https://consult.education.gov.uk/pshe/relationships-education-rse-health-education/supporting_documents/180718%20Consultation_call%20for%20evidence%20response_policy%20statement.pdf.
The Government response to the consultation can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/relationships-and-sex-education-and-health-education.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment has he made of effect of online gambling on vulnerable gamblers.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
All operators providing gambling facilities to consumers in Great Britain must be licensed by the Gambling Commission and comply with licence conditions, which include the protection of vulnerable people from being harmed or exploited by gambling. Operators are required to prevent underage gambling, to intervene when a customer shows signs of being at risk of harm and to offer the facility to self-exclude. Online operators must also offer a ‘time out’ facility and can make other tools available to help players manage their gambling, such as setting time or spend limits.
In May last year the Government published its response to the Consultation on proposals for changes to Gaming Machines and Social Responsibility Measures, which set out a comprehensive package to strengthen protections across all forms of gambling, including online. Next month, the Gambling Commission will bring in new rules requiring operators to complete age and identity verification before consumers can deposit money and gamble, or play free-to-play demo games.
The Gambling Commission is also currently consulting on proposals to strengthen the requirement for operators to interact with consumers who may be experiencing gambling related harm. They are also reviewing whether gambling online with credit cards should be restricted, and will explore the potential consequences of doing so.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to support (a) the building of social housing and (b) other elements of estate regeneration.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government is committed to increasing the supply of social housing and has made £9 billion available through the Affordable Homes Programme to March 2022, to deliver 250,000 new affordable homes of a wide range of tenures, including social rent.
The Government has also given certainty over future rental income by allowing housing association and local authority landlords to increase rents by up to CPI+1 per cent from 2020. On 29 October 2018 the Autumn Budget confirmed that the Housing Revenue Account borrowing cap had been abolished entirely and with immediate effect, giving councils the tools they need to deliver a new generation of council housing.
The Estate Regeneration Programme is currently supporting and working with over 100 estates across the country.
£290 million of loan funding has been made available to provide long term finance for estate regeneration.
In March 2017, £32 million of grant funding was awarded to over 100 estates around the country to accelerate schemes at the early stages of regeneration and build access to commercial skills.
Gloucester City Homes received £1.249 million of enabling grant to support the early preparatory and planning work for two estates in Gloucester.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has for the legal protection of the welfare of animals after the UK has left the EU.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government has been very clear that leaving the EU will not lead to a lowering of our high animal welfare standards. Our regulatory system will offer the same level of assurance of animal welfare following our departure from the EU as it does now. The EU Withdrawal Act will ensure that existing EU standards are maintained once we leave the EU. For instance, existing bans on chlorinated chicken and hormone beef have been transferred into UK law and will remain in place after we leave.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the recent Care Quality Commission rating of the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) latest inspection rating report of the Trust, published on 7 February, assesses the Trust as ‘Good’ overall. This is an improvement to the previous CQC rating.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for International Development:
What recent representations she has received on the future of UNRWA funding in Palestine.
Answered by Alistair Burt
In December, we received representations from Pierre Krähenbühl, UNRWA’s Commissioner General, and Jamie McGoldrick, the local UN Humanitarian Coordinator who thanked the UK for our support in reducing UNRWA’s unprecedented financial shortfall. We will continue working with UNRWA and other donors to help ensure its essential services are maintained.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of reforms to the probation system.
Answered by Rory Stewart
We have a diverse range of providers delivering probation services, and an additional 40,000 offenders each year receiving supervision and support after release from custody.
While Community Rehabilitation Companies have reduced reoffending by two percentage points since 2015, we have been clear that probation needs to improve.
We set out in our consultation in July our intention to end the current CRC contracts in 2020 and put in place new structures which will enable private, public and third-sector providers to help further reduce reoffending.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that any agreement reached on EU citizens' rights in the UK after the UK leaves the EU will be reciprocated for UK citizens in European countries.
Answered by Robin Walker
Safeguarding the rights of EU citizens living in the UK and UK nationals living in the EU was our first priority for negotiations. The fair and reciprocal agreement reached and set out in the draft legal text of the Withdrawal Agreement will provide UK nationals in the EU with more certainty about their rights going forward.
The UK is putting in place the administrative arrangements to implement the draft Withdrawal Agreement on citizens’ rights in the Home Office’s EU Settlement Scheme. It is for each Member State to determine how they will implement the Withdrawal Agreement to secure the rights of UK nationals resident in their country, and we are working with Member States to understand how they will do so. We will ensure that we communicate to UK nationals living in the EU any changes to administrative procedures introduced by Member States.