Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of levels of consumer protection provided by the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018.

Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The additional consumer rights provided to travellers under The Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018 (“PTRs”) have played an important role in ensuring consumers are supported through supplier insolvencies. The Department is currently working with stakeholders and consumer representatives to review the framework and identify whether it can be further strengthened. This has taken the form of:

• a Call for Evidence,
• stakeholder engagement sessions and,
• consumer research.

Our conclusions from this evidence gathering will be published in due course. Separately, the Department for Transport is continuing work with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) exploring how the ATOL scheme should operate in the future.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of levels of consumer protection provided by (a) package travel and (b) ATOL regulations.

Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The rights provided under The Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangement Regulations 2018 (PTRs) have been key to resolving many consumer issues in recent years- including supplier insolvencies. DBT is looking to expand options for businesses to protect consumer deposits, while working with stakeholders and consumer organisations to identify whether the framework can be further strengthened.

In relation to ATOL, the responsibility of the Secretary of State for Transport. The ATOL Regulations have provided valued protection to consumers for over 50 years. The Department for Transport is continuing work with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) exploring how the ATOL scheme should operate in the future.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of reforming the non-qualifying leaseholder status for building remediation funding.

Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

We understand that many leaseholders are frustrated by the limits of qualifying status set out in the Building Safety Act.

The principle of the leaseholder protection package is to protect leaseholders living in their own homes in unsafe buildings. They also seek to balance the rights of leaseholders who own additional properties with those freeholders (not connected with the developer) who, like the leaseholders, were innocent in the creation of the emerging defects.

To achieve this balance a threshold was set at ownership of up to three properties in total, to cover those individuals who had purchased properties primarily to live in. The inclusion of up to three properties was aimed at giving protection to, for example, those who had been unable to sell flats that they had been forced to move out of, e.g. because of a growing family.

The Government has committed to review how to better protect leaseholders from costs and take steps to accelerate the pace of remediation across the country.

In the meantime, there is a range of support for those leaseholders whose lease does not qualify for protection under Part 5 of the Building Safety Act 2022. This includes support with cladding remediation and protection for their principal residence on 14 February 2022 if it is in a relevant building above 11 metres or five storeys.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to support the rights of women in Afghanistan.

Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

We have repeatedly condemned Taliban restrictions on women and girls' rights, including through UN Security Council and Human Rights Council resolutions. As the Foreign Secretary has said, exclusion of women from all aspects of public life is a tragic setback for Afghanistan. Officials from the Doha-based UK Mission to Afghanistan continue to press Taliban acting ministers and Afghan officials on human rights abuses in Afghanistan, including the most recent ban on female medical education. Our current £161 million aid programme provides vital life-saving support to the country's most vulnerable people, including access to healthcare and education. We are committed that at least 50 percent of people reached with UK aid in Afghanistan will be women and girls.