Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether people in receipt of pension credit will receive support for transport costs when travelling to and from their covid-19 vaccination venue.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Those in receipt of pension credit are entitled to a bus pass for free travel and 99% of people now live within 10 miles of a vaccination centre and are accessible via bus transport links.
Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department has issued to centres administering the covid-19 vaccine on contacting people in priority groups one and two who have so far not received a covid-19 vaccine.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The National Health Service has now offered the COVID-19 vaccine to everyone in the top four priority cohorts. Any health and care staff who have not so far accepted but would now like to do so have been asked to contact their employer who is responsible for arranging their vaccination. Others in the initial priority groups one to four can arrange a vaccination through the national booking system by calling 119 or at the following link:
Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to ensure that vaccination centres work their way through the priority list in the correct order and vaccinate only groups 3 and 4 when as many as possible from groups 1 and 2 have been vaccinated.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
In order of priority, most United Kingdom residents will be contacted by their general practitioner (GP) to book their vaccine via an online or telephone system. Those in the initial priority groups can also arrange their vaccination appointment by calling 119 or through the national booking system at the following link:
http://www.nhs.uk/covid-vaccination
Additionally, the National Immunisation Management System (NIMS) is used as the national register of COVID-19 vaccinations. At the point that someone receives their COVID-19 vaccine, the vaccinating team will record the information on the NIMS system and a patient’s GP record.
The top four priority groups – people aged 70 years old and over, care home residents and staff, health and care staff and clinically extremely vulnerable patients – have now all been offered the opportunity to be vaccinated.
Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has been directly informed of issues with covid-19 vaccine supply in rural areas.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Department has not been directly informed of issues with COVID-19 vaccine supply in rural areas.
Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
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 potential merits of giving priority vaccines to adults who are cared for at home and their carers alongside adults resident in a care home and care workers.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) are the independent experts who advise the Government on which vaccines the United Kingdom should use and provide advice on prioritisation at a population level. For the first phase, the JCVI have advised that the vaccine be given to care home residents and staff, as well as frontline health and social care workers, then to the rest of the population in order of age and clinical risk factors.
If a person is cared for at home and falls under the criteria for prioritisation in phase one of the COVID-19 vaccination programme, they will be vaccinated according to their priority group; this includes those considered clinically extremely vulnerable and those considered to be ‘adults at risk’.
Those who are in receipt of a carer’s allowance or those who are the main carer of an elderly or disabled person whose welfare may be at risk if the carer falls ill should also be offered vaccination in priority group six.
Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the UK's bluefin tuna quota as a result of the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, if he will take steps to increase that quota as part of a scientific UK catch and release program.
Answered by Victoria Prentis
The Trade and Cooperation Agreement reached with the EU secures the UK a share of the EU’s current bluefin tuna allocation. Any further increases to the UK’s quota would need to be secured via negotiations in the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).
In addition to national quotas held by its contracting parties, ICCAT makes a small, separate ‘Research Mortality Allowance’ quota available for specific research purposes that meet strict criteria. RMA supports the delivery of the multiyear ‘Thunnus UK’ tuna tagging programme led by Cefas and the University of Exeter. The UK will be applying for continued access to the RMA to continue this work in 2021.
No decisions have yet been taken on how to use the UK’s new national quota. Stakeholders will be consulted on potential options in due course.
Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 12 November 2020 to Question HL9766 on Musical Instruments: Customs, what options other than a Carnet a UK citizen residing in the UK has to transport video, photography, and recording equipment between the EU and UK whilst undertaking freelance work.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
In addition to using carnets, there are two main alternative options for transporting video, photography and recording equipment between the EU and the UK - Temporary Admission and Returned Goods Relief.
Temporary Admission is a customs procedure that allows a person to import non-UK goods temporarily into the UK. Using Temporary Admission means any import duty or import VAT is suspended as long as the goods are removed from the UK at a later date. Temporary Admission is useful if a person needs to temporarily import goods such as samples, professional equipment or items for auction, exhibition or demonstration into the UK. Further information can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-to-import-goods-temporarily-to-the-uk-or-eu.
Returned Goods Relief (RGR) allows eligible items to be reimported free from Customs duty and import VAT. The relief can apply to exported items returning to the UK if certain conditions can be met. For RGR to apply goods must normally be returned within three years of the date of export unless exceptional circumstances exist. For RGR on import VAT to apply the exporter and importer must be the same person and any VAT due must have been previously paid in the UK or EU. Further information can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/pay-less-import-duty-and-vat-when-re-importing-goods-to-the-uk-and-eu.
Temporary Admission and Returned Goods Relief may be available in the EU. Further information on EU customs procedures can be found at https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/business/customs-procedures_en.
Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the implications for this Department's policies of the recommendation of the SAP Industry Forum’s April 2020 SAP 11 Technologies Report that biopropane should be modelled as fuel choice for heat in both new and existing buildings.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan
The Department has commenced work on the development of the next version of the Standard Assessment Procedure, SAP 11. It will consider the SAP Industry Forum’s Report on the likely mainstream technologies for consideration in the mid-2020s as part of this. The Department has also commissioned a wider scoping project to advise more broadly on what SAP 11 will need to model and how it should do this. This project will further help to inform the development of SAP11 and is due to report back in February.
Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress he has made on the duty review for alcohol announced in the spring Budget 2020; and what assessment he has made of the potential economic merits of lowering the duty on spirits.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
A call for evidence was held in 2020, which closed on 29 November. The Government is now analysing the responses provided and will provide further updates on the duty review in due course.
Alcohol duties are kept under review and the impact of a change to spirits duty is considered at each fiscal event, including its effects on the economy.
Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of anti-money laundering provisions in the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002; and what recent assessment she has made of the effect of the 2002 Act on small businesses.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The UK is internationally recognised as having some of the strongest controls and legislation worldwide when it comes to tackling money laundering and bringing to justice those who seek to use or hide the proceeds of crime. There has been no recent assessment of the effectiveness of anti-money laundering provisions in the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. In 2017, the Regulatory Policy Committee, which considers the impact of legislation on business, rated the Criminal Finances Bill as ‘fit for purpose’. They agreed that the Bill would “involve no significant burden on small businesses”. The Criminal Finances Act amended the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and gained Royal Assent in 2017.