Ruth Cadbury

The list of Parliamentary Private Secretaries as of September 2024 is published on gov.uk and can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/list-of-parliamentary-private-secretaries-pps-september-2024

The Online Safety Act requires all in-scope services to protect users from online illegal content and criminal behaviour on their services. Coercive and controlling behaviour is a priority offence under the Act. Adult users of services over the designated threshold will also have the ability to verify their own identity, reduce the likelihood of seeing non-verified users’ content, and prevent non-verified users from interacting with their content. The government and Ofcom’s priority is getting these protections implemented effectively.

This Government is committed to delivering the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for drinks containers in October 2027, as agreed with the devolved governments of the UK, and in accordance with the Joint Policy Statement published in April 2024.

We plan to lay the DRS regulations for England/Northern Ireland before Parliament in late 2024 and for them to come into force in early 2025 (assuming parliamentary time allows) and for the Deposit Management Organisation, who will run the scheme, to be appointed in April 2025 as planned.

Following a request from the Kosovan Embassy to consider a possible reciprocal driving licence exchange agreement, officials have carried out a full assessment of the information provided by the Kosovan authorities. This assessment concluded that driver testing and licensing arrangements in place in Kosovo are comparable with those in this country.

The department is now progressing the work required to achieve an exchange agreement. All driving licence exchange agreements are subject to a legally required public consultation and the introduction of the relevant legislation.

The Department conducted roadside trials of noise camera technology between October 2022 and February 2023. Reports of these trials, including detailed assessment of the technology’s performance and potential merits, were published on 17 March 2024.

The Secretary of State for Transport has not had discussions with local authorities on the use of noise cameras.

The Department conducted roadside trials of noise camera technology between October 2022 and February 2023. Reports of these trials, including detailed assessment of the technology’s performance and potential merits, were published on 17 March 2024.

The Secretary of State for Transport has not had discussions with local authorities on the use of noise cameras.

The primary purpose of Carer’s Allowance (CA) is to provide a measure of support and recognition to those whose caring responsibilities mean they are unable to work full time. In order to receive CA, the person being cared for must be in receipt of a disability benefit at the appropriate rate, this is one of the ways we establish that care is required.

Where the adult disability benefit ceases as a result of the cared for person entering a hospital for more than four weeks, CA will also cease. This is to avoid a double provision of public funds to provide care for this individual. A period of 28 days is allowed to determine whether this situation is long term before the relevant benefit payments stop.

However, carers may be entitled to further support. Local Authorities have duties to support people caring for their family and friends. The Care Act 2014 requires local authorities to deliver a wide range of sustainable, high-quality care and support services, including support for carers.

Local authorities are also required to undertake Carer’s Assessments to support people caring for their family and friends who appear to have a need for support and to meet their eligible needs on request from them.

I would encourage carers who are not receiving a means-tested benefit already to check on Gov.UK to see whether they may be entitled to any other benefits, which may include support with the additional costs of caring. Advice can also be sought from organisations such as Carers UK and Citizens Advice.

As explained in the Answer of 15 November 2024 to Question 13503 on Personal Independence Payment: Patients, found here, the information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Suspensions of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) after entering (a) hospital, (b) hospice, (c) residential care, and other accommodation types, are combined in the PIP Computer System under a single category.

To distinguish between the specific types of accommodation as requested would require manual investigation of each individual claimant record. We could provide, within cost, the combined figure for all suspensions due to “hospitalisation and other accommodation types”.

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Suspensions of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) for admission to hospital are combined in the PIP Computer System with admissions to hospices and care homes. To distinguish hospital care from the other types of accommodation would require manual investigation of individual claimant records.

Where an adult age 18 or over is maintained free of charge while undergoing medical or other treatment as an in-patient in a hospital or similar institution funded by the NHS, payment of (but not entitlement to) Personal Independence Payment (PIP) ceases after 28 days. This is on the basis that the NHS is responsible for not only the person’s medical care but also the entirety of their disability-related extra costs and to pay PIP in addition would be a duplication of public funds intended for the same purpose. Once someone is discharged from hospital, payment of PIP recommences from the date of discharge.

Entitlement and payment of the standard allowance of Universal Credit will not change if a customer goes into hospital for treatment and/ or care, regardless of the duration of the stay. If the customer has been found to have limited capacity for work or work-related activity, this element will continue to be paid alongside the Universal Credit standard allowance.

The Child Poverty Taskforce has started urgent work to publish the Child Poverty Strategy in Spring and will explore all available levers to drive forward short and long-term actions across government to reduce child poverty. The taskforce is exploring a range of metrics and will make decisions alongside the publication of the strategy in Spring 2025.

National Health Service organisations in London will have their own plans in place to manage their recruitment and retention needs, based on local workforce planning.

A clear plan for retention is an essential component of an overall supply plan for the NHS. We need to retain the experienced and skilled staff that we already have, and ensure that the NHS is an attractive place to work so that we can bring in the new trainees and recruits that we need. Nationally, the NHS retention programme is working with NHS organisations to improve culture and leadership across the NHS, addressing issues that matter to staff, such as the need for good occupational health and wellbeing support and the promotion of opportunities to work flexibly.

We have launched a 10-Year Health Plan to reform the NHS. A central and core part of the 10-Year Health Plan will be our workforce, and how we ensure we train and provide the staff, technology, and infrastructure the NHS needs to care for patients when and where they need it.

The Government’s nutrition advice is based on recommendations from the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) and its predecessor, the Committee on Medical Aspects of Food and Nutritional Policy (COMA).

The COMA set dietary reference values for magnesium for men and women aged 19 to 64 years old at 300 milligrams and 270 milligrams a day, respectively. Current Government advice is that individuals should be able to get all the magnesium they need by eating a varied and balanced diet.

The SACN discussed the topic of magnesium as part of its horizon scanning in 2020, 2022, and 2024. Meeting papers are available on the SACN webpage. The committee has noted that while ‘significant proportions of the population had [low intakes], there was limited evidence that this was of public health concern’. There is no agreed biomarker for measuring magnesium status.

Magnesium is therefore on the SACN’s watching brief as a low priority, and the SACN may consider it again in future, if there are any developments regarding biomarkers for magnesium status, to warrant a review of recommendations.

The UK has consistently urged the Azerbaijani authorities, including ahead of COP29, to ensure that those in detention are afforded a fair trial and are provided safe conditions, in accordance with Azerbaijan's international obligations and commitments. We are in touch with the UK delegation visiting Azerbaijan for COP29 to ensure a smooth visit to the country, however we have not received a formal request for UK Government support to visit Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan.

HMRC aims to process all refunds and repayments within a reasonable timeframe. The processing of these is recorded as part of HMRC’s post turnaround measure. HMRC’s service standard for post turnaround is 80% of customer correspondence cleared within 15 working days of receipt. HMRC’s performance has been 77% from April to August 2024.

Post performance is published monthly and can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-monthly-performance-reports#reporting-year-2024-to-2025.

To improve their services and meet published standards HMRC have recently deployed additional customer service advisers. They expect to meet their post service standards in the second half of 2024-25 as the new advisers are trained and up to speed.

It is important for the investigation of offences, as well as for ensuring transparency and accountability in policing, that effective records are kept, and data is recorded. But it is vital that these processes are proportionate and do not get in the way of everyday police work.

This Government is committed to tackling unnecessary bureaucracy and will work with police forces to build on the foundation of the Policing Productivity Review, working with the College of Policing to support forces to ensure officers are able to use their time more productively.

The Home Office’s Annual Data Requirement (ADR) is a list of all requests for data made to chief officers of police forces in England and Wales under the Home Secretary’s statutory powers. There is a robust and stringent process underpinning the ADR to review existing requests and consider new or amended requests.

British overseas citizens (BOCs) are subject to UK immigration control, but are eligible for British passports and other consular services.

Many BOCs will have rights, including of residence and travel, that stem from the other nationalities that they hold. BOCs who do not hold, and have not voluntarily lost, any other nationality are able to apply to register as British citizens under section 4B of the British Nationality Act 1981. BOCs are also able to apply to register as British citizens after 5 years of living in the UK, and meeting certain residence requirements under section 4(2) of the British Nationality Act 1981.

The UK Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme was launched to secure our borders and make the UK safer, by enhancing our ability to screen travellers upstream. The scheme will apply to passengers from eligible countries who are transiting the UK. ETAs form part of our long-term plan for a slicker, more efficient border, with a greater number of passengers able to benefit from automation at the border, enabling our highly skilled Border Force officers to focus on those who pose the most harm or are at the most risk.

We continue to engage positively with industry, and support the aviation sector in understanding what ETAs and wider digitisation will mean for passengers.

The UK Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme was launched to secure our borders and make the UK safer, by enhancing our ability to screen travellers upstream. The scheme will apply to passengers from eligible countries who are transiting the UK. ETAs form part of our long-term plan for a slicker, more efficient border, with a greater number of passengers able to benefit from automation at the border, enabling our highly skilled Border Force officers to focus on those who pose the most harm or are at the most risk.

We continue to engage positively with industry, and support the aviation sector in understanding what ETAs and wider digitisation will mean for passengers.

The Home Office does not hold data on the number of people who hold a British Overseas Citizenship status.

Due to the broad range of offences applied to same-sex sexual acts and the record keeping practices prior to 2000, there is no way of conducting a search for data on sexuality based convictions. Court martials were held on a single Service basis until 2009, with the results of such cases being recorded in district court martial books and individuals’ Service records until the introduction of the Joint Personnel Administration database in 2006. Therefore, the data from prior to 2006 is not centrally held in a way which would enable this type of analysis.

The Government encourages anyone who was convicted based on their sexuality to apply for a disregard through the Home Office’s Disregard and Pardon scheme.

The Government acknowledges the historic policy prohibiting homosexuality in the Armed Forces was regrettable, wrong and completely unacceptable. The treatment of LGBT Serving personnel between 1967 and 2000 was wholly unacceptable and does not reflect today’s Armed Forces.

All 49 recommendations made in Lord Etherton’s report have been accepted and to date, 32 of the 49 recommendations have already been implemented demonstrating the Government’s commitment to supporting our veterans and the LGBT+ community.

Full details about these recommendations and the non-financial restorative measures already available can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/lgbt-veterans-apply-for-restorative-measures.

Lord Etherton’s report demonstrated the broad range of ways that personnel were impacted by the Ban. The financial redress scheme has been designed with this in mind, intending to provide a sense of closure to all those affected. Defence has worked with experts across Government to design an appropriate scheme where applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis, enabling appropriate distribution of the available funds.

I hope this helps explain Defence’s position and reassures you that we are committed to welcoming back LGBT veterans into the Armed Forces community, where they have always belonged.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government does not gather data on the number of leasehold properties which contain Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC). However, our current assessment is that prevalence of RAAC is low in housing.

All building owners should continue to manage building safety and performance risks of all kinds in their buildings, including RAAC, in a proportionate, risk-based, and evidence-based manner. To do so, they should continue to follow guidance published by the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) to identify, assess, and manage issues relating to RAAC.

Data on the progress and costs of the Waking Watch Relief and Replacement Funds, launched prior to 2023, are published as part of the Building Safety Remediation: monthly data release - June 2024 - GOV.UK. The Waking Watch Replacement Fund 2023 opened on 25 May 2023 and closed for new applications on 31 March 2024. Waking Watch Replacement Fund 2023 data is not currently reported as part of the Building Safety Remediation Monthly Data Release, however we will include full fund data within future releases in due course.

As of the end of June 2024, there are currently 14 buildings eligible for remediation through the Building Safety Fund in the constituency of Brentford and Isleworth. Of these 14, it is estimated that 11 buildings have received funding for their remediation, covering approximately 700 residential units across the constituency.

As of the end of June 2024, there are 423 London buildings that have had grant funding approved, of these 169 have not started on site building remediation. Outside of London, there are 315 buildings that have had grant funding approved. Of these, 76 have not started on site building remediation.

Data on the progress and costs of the Waking Watch Relief and Replacement Funds, launched prior to 2023, are published as part of the Building Safety Remediation: monthly data release - June 2024 - GOV.UK. The Waking Watch Replacement Fund 2023 opened on 25 May 2023 and closed for new applications on 31 March 2024. Waking Watch Replacement Fund 2023 data is not currently reported as part of the Building Safety Remediation Monthly Data Release, however we will include full fund data within future releases in due course.

As of the end of June 2024, there are currently 14 buildings eligible for remediation through the Building Safety Fund in the constituency of Brentford and Isleworth. Of these 14, it is estimated that 11 buildings have received funding for their remediation, covering approximately 700 residential units across the constituency.

As of the end of June 2024, there are 423 London buildings that have had grant funding approved, of these 169 have not started on site building remediation. Outside of London, there are 315 buildings that have had grant funding approved. Of these, 76 have not started on site building remediation.

Data on the progress and costs of the Waking Watch Relief and Replacement Funds, launched prior to 2023, are published as part of the Building Safety Remediation: monthly data release - June 2024 - GOV.UK. The Waking Watch Replacement Fund 2023 opened on 25 May 2023 and closed for new applications on 31 March 2024. Waking Watch Replacement Fund 2023 data is not currently reported as part of the Building Safety Remediation Monthly Data Release, however we will include full fund data within future releases in due course.

As of the end of June 2024, there are currently 14 buildings eligible for remediation through the Building Safety Fund in the constituency of Brentford and Isleworth. Of these 14, it is estimated that 11 buildings have received funding for their remediation, covering approximately 700 residential units across the constituency.

As of the end of June 2024, there are 423 London buildings that have had grant funding approved, of these 169 have not started on site building remediation. Outside of London, there are 315 buildings that have had grant funding approved. Of these, 76 have not started on site building remediation.

The information requested is not available for each individual Greater London Borough and could only be obtained with further data engineering work which would be disproportionate cost.

Information about Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) appeals is published on GOV.UK: www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.

However, it is not available in the specific format requested.

Success rates at appeal in the SEND Tribunal include if a parent or young person is successful at appeal for a part or in full. Hearing information is held on each individual appeal record. Each appeal would need to be accessed, the decision recording the outcome obtained for all records held within each of the 33 London Boroughs for the past 5 years.

HMP Wandsworth pays £16,238 per annum for a contracted weekly pest control service. The cost of additional pest control work during the last 12 months totals £99,900.92. This work is being carried out as part of our wider efforts to improve living conditions at the prison, which also includes additional specialist staff, to ensure immediate action is being taken.

The new healthcare unit is expected to open in mid-September 2024.

His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons’ findings at HMP Wandsworth are deeply concerning. The Lord Chancellor and the Minister of State for Prisons are determined to drive improvement at the prison and we published our response to the Urgent Notification on 6 August 2024.

We also published HMP Wandsworth’s full action plan on 29 August 2024. This action plan addresses the key concerns made by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) during the inspection.

Lord Timpson, Minister of State for Prisons, visited HMP Wandsworth on 2 September, accompanied by Lord Ponsonby and will continue to take an active interest in progress at the prison until we are persuaded that sustainable improvement has been delivered.

We are constantly monitoring the use of End of Custody Supervised Licence (ECSL) and its impact.

ECSL was implemented in October 2023. Since its operation, the number of ECSL releases between 17 October 2023 and 30 June 2024 was 10,083.

The information requested could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost, because it would require the linkage and reconciliation of multiple administrative datasets.