Ruth Jones

The fifth round of negotiations on an enhanced free trade agreement with Switzerland took place in London in October 2024. As part of that, negotiations on intellectual property continued to advance across a number of rights areas. The UK aims to agree a comprehensive IP chapter which builds on the UK and Switzerland’s existing high mutual standards, balances interests across all UK industries and sectors, and reaches an outcome that delivers for the whole of the UK.

The Department is aware of allegations that have been made about the business practices of some companies that operated rent-a-roof or leasing models in the Feed-in Tariff and Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive schemes. Ofgem is currently looking into these allegations.

If Ofgem finds evidence of wrongdoing, then the Department will support Ofgem in using the full extent of its powers to address the issue.

Wales will play an important role in increasing the UK's onshore wind capacity and meeting our Net Zero Ambitions.

The Government has set up an Onshore Wind Industry Taskforce to identify and address the barriers to increased onshore wind deployment, including in relation to airspace management and aviation. As a reserved matter, we recognise that this will have implications for onshore wind projects being built in the Devolved Administrations. We engage regularly with the Welsh Government, who are represented on the Onshore Wind Industry Taskforce.

The government has no plans to conduct a review of the adequacy of the Charities Act 2011.

DCMS regularly considers the charity regulatory landscape to ensure that charities are sufficiently transparent and accountable, and to ensure that the Charity Commission for England and Wales has appropriate oversight of the sector.

Between the beginning of September 2024 and Friday 13th December, the department has received 323 items of correspondence on the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme: 119 from organisations; 119 from hon. and rt. hon. Members; and, 85 from individual members of the public.

Each devolved nation is responsible for its own listings regime. Details on listed buildings can be found on the public lists maintained by Historic England, Cadw, Historic Environment Scotland and the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland respectively. The list maintained by Historic England is searchable by key words which can include denomination.

The next meeting will be organised soon, when we look forward to taking forward a series of important measures with the heritage sector and listening to people’s concerns and ideas for the future.

This Government is committed to transitioning to a circular economy. We have convened a Circular Economy Taskforce to help us develop a Circular Economy Strategy for England. The Strategy will be supported by a series of roadmaps detailing the interventions that the Government will make on a sector-by-sector basis, supporting government’s Missions to kickstart economic growth and make Britain a clean energy superpower. We are considering the evidence for sector-specific interventions right across the economy, including in electronic waste and batteries, as we develop our Strategy. Currently 100 local authorities in the United Kingdom operate Kerbside collection for small waste electricals and electronic equipment.

Records show that the Environment Agency has spent approximately £425,000 on salary costs (including wages and direct overheads) for this work. This excludes wider organisational overheads (such as building maintenance and energy costs) and the Health and Safety Executive’s time and costs.

Delivery of a Chemicals Strategy was a commitment set by the previous Government. This commitment is being considered as part of the Government’s revision of the Environmental Improvement Plan.

Beyond delivery of a Chemicals Strategy, the Government is committed to supporting the uptake and development of alternative methods to the use of animals in science. The Labour Manifesto includes a commitment to “partner with scientists, industry, and civil society as we work towards the phasing out of animal testing”, which is a long-term goal, and will likely take many years of scientific and technical advancement and validation to reach this point.

Our current approach is to support and fund the development and dissemination of techniques that replace, reduce and refine the use of animals in research (the 3Rs), and to ensure that the UK has a robust regulatory system for licensing animal studies and enforcing legal standards.

In line with the Government’s Manifesto commitment, we are currently engaging with partners from sectors with interests in animal science and on a cross-Government level as to how we will take this commitment forward, including the publishing of a strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods. We expect to publish this strategy later this year.

Animal testing of chemical substances is permitted under UK REACH only as a measure of last resort; this principle is reinforced by the Environment Act 2021. The last resort principle underpins the REACH testing proposal procedure. This procedure already requires that HSE, as the UK REACH Agency, must publish all testing proposals to facilitate the submission of relevant information by third parties. Moreover, UK REACH states that test methods should be regularly reviewed with a view to reducing animal testing and it encourages the use of alternative methods. The Environment Act 2021 includes powers to amend UK REACH and consultation is a legal requirement under those powers.

In 2024 the Government consulted on an Alternative Transitional Registration model (ATRm). The aim of the ATRm is to consider the information needs under UK REACH to provide substance hazard data in the registration dossier for UK REACH transitional registrations (for those substances previously registered on EU REACH), including the need to generate new data. The consultation also included proposals to introduce further protections against unnecessary animal testing as part of our ongoing project to improve UK REACH. We are currently considering our approach to chemicals regulation, including UK REACH. We will provide a summary of the responses during 2025.

Both UK REACH and EU REACH recognise studies performed outside the UK or the EU. This means that there is no need to repeat a study because it was previously carried out elsewhere.

As of the 12 March 2025, the total number of dogs registered on the Dangerous Dogs Index, broken down by breed type, is as follows. This excludes dogs that have died, destroyed or have been exported.

For the period 1 March 2021 to 15 March 2025, HSE’s full economic cost estimate is £700,000. This includes the costs of both HSE and independent scientific experts engaged in this work but excludes work undertaken by the Environment Agency.

The United Kingdom (UK) is no longer required to implement changes to European Union (EU) legislation automatically following our withdrawal from the EU. This includes Regulation (EU) 2024/2865 of 23 October 2024, which amends the EU Classification Labelling and Packaging (CLP) Regulation (CLP) Regulation. The assimilated Great Britain (GB) CLP Regulation aims to ensure the effective identification and communication of chemical hazards and the safe and secure packaging of chemicals in order to protect human health and the environment. The EU legislation will apply in Northern Ireland under the terms of the Windsor Framework.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which leads on CLP issues in the UK, is currently examining the scientific and technical basis and the wider policy context and it will advise the Government on whether any of these amendments have any merits that could be incorporated into the GB CLP regulations.

We do not hold this information.

Local authorities administer the Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) scheme as they are best placed to make informed judgements about relative priorities and needs in their area to ensure that the most vulnerable are supported and the funds are targeted effectively. As such, DWP do not hold administrative data on households in receipt of a DHP and thus cannot state how many awards were made for households who received housing support via the Local Housing Allowance in 2023/24.

The Department publishes Official Statistics on the use of DHPs twice a year, based on information supplied by local authorities: Discretionary Housing Payments statistics - GOV.UK

We will consider what to publish when we announce our decision on the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s report.

We will not publish the Departmental submissions to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

The Parliamentary and Health Ombudsman’s investigations are conducted in private as set out in section 7(2) of the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967.