Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 4 June 2025 to Question 54068 on Housing: Contracts, what her definition her Department uses for the terms (a) Bed Space and (b) Bed Space Size in the context of the Accommodation Contracts.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
There is no definition of those within current accommodation contracts.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the financial impact of being required to apply Extended Producer Responsibility charges retrospectively in the absence of published official rates for relevant material streams on businesses.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Regulations do not impose a retrospective charge and were subject to the required legal and parliamentary scrutiny before coming into force
To prepare businesses for the implementation of the packaging pEPR scheme we have now published illustrative base fees, based on local authority waste management costs forming the basis for indicative local authority payments for 2025, and on packaging tonnages reported by large producers for the first 6-months of 2024. These illustrative base fees for the first time show point estimates as opposed to ranges, providing further certainty to businesses. Producers were required to submit their final 2024 data by 1 April 2025. Following this deadline, regulators are conducting regulatory checks. Once checks are conducted to an appropriate level we will use 2024 data and insight from regulator checks to publish packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR) base fees in June 2025.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the terms (a) Bed Space Size and (b) Bed space in public sector accommodation contracts refer to the number of individuals a room or property is intended to accommodate.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Each department is responsible for specifying its own contract requirements, so the meaning of “Bed Space Size” and “Bed space" may vary based on the criteria established by each department.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of raising the minimum age for eligibility for the COVID-19 booster during the spring vaccination programme on healthcare services in (a) Leicester and (b) England.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advises the Department on the approach to vaccination and immunisation programmes. The aim of the COVID-19 vaccination programme is to prevent serious disease, leading to hospitalisation and/or mortality, arising from COVID-19.
The JCVI has advised that the available national data continues to demonstrate that older people and those who are immunosuppressed are at greatest risk of hospitalisation and death from COVID-19. The data available to the JCVI is national data, and they therefore made no assessment specific to Leicester.
On 13 November 2024, the JCVI published advice on the COVID-19 vaccination programme for spring 2025, autumn 2025, and spring 2026. This advice can be found at the following link:
On 12 December 2024, the Government accepted the JCVI’s advice that a COVID-19 vaccine should be offered in spring 2025 to adults aged 75 years old and over, residents in a care home for older adults, and the immunosuppressed aged six months old and over. The Government’s response can be found at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/advice-accepted-on-spring-2025-covid-19-vaccination-programme
Eligibility for the spring 2025 campaign, including minimum age requirements, is the same as in previous spring campaigns, such as the 2024 campaign. The Government has no plans to change eligibility for spring 2025, and has accepted the JCVI’s advice for this campaign in full. The spring 2025 campaign began in England on 1 April, and will conclude on 17 June.
The JCVI also advised on eligibility for the autumn 2025 and spring 2026 programmes. The Government is considering this advice carefully and will respond in due course.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to reverse the decision to raise the minimum age for eligibility for a COVID-19 booster as part of the spring vaccination programme.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advises the Department on the approach to vaccination and immunisation programmes. The aim of the COVID-19 vaccination programme is to prevent serious disease, leading to hospitalisation and/or mortality, arising from COVID-19.
The JCVI has advised that the available national data continues to demonstrate that older people and those who are immunosuppressed are at greatest risk of hospitalisation and death from COVID-19. The data available to the JCVI is national data, and they therefore made no assessment specific to Leicester.
On 13 November 2024, the JCVI published advice on the COVID-19 vaccination programme for spring 2025, autumn 2025, and spring 2026. This advice can be found at the following link:
On 12 December 2024, the Government accepted the JCVI’s advice that a COVID-19 vaccine should be offered in spring 2025 to adults aged 75 years old and over, residents in a care home for older adults, and the immunosuppressed aged six months old and over. The Government’s response can be found at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/advice-accepted-on-spring-2025-covid-19-vaccination-programme
Eligibility for the spring 2025 campaign, including minimum age requirements, is the same as in previous spring campaigns, such as the 2024 campaign. The Government has no plans to change eligibility for spring 2025, and has accepted the JCVI’s advice for this campaign in full. The spring 2025 campaign began in England on 1 April, and will conclude on 17 June.
The JCVI also advised on eligibility for the autumn 2025 and spring 2026 programmes. The Government is considering this advice carefully and will respond in due course.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make an assessment of the adequacy of placing phlebotomists in band two of the NHS Agenda for Change pay scale, in the context of their clinical responsibilities; and whether he plans to review the criteria used to determine their pay banding.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Phlebotomists are paid under the Agenda for Change pay scale, which is underpinned by the Job Evaluation Scheme (JES). The JES is a structured method of comparing job demands as set out in the job documentation, for example the job description, to determine the appropriate Agenda for Change pay band for any given role.
The model of weighting and scoring job documentation via the JES has been legally tested and proven to be robust, therefore we have no current plans to review the system.
Employers are responsible for correctly and consistently implementing the JES locally, to ensure staff are paid correctly for the work they are asked to deliver.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has make of the adequacy of the NHS Job Evaluation Scheme (a) matrices and (b) formulae used to determine Agenda for Change pay bandings; and whether he has plans to update the assessment framework.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Job Evaluation Scheme (JES) underpins pay for National Health Service staff under the Agenda for Change Terms and Conditions. The JES model of weighting and scoring job documentation has been legally tested and proven to be robust, therefore we have no plans to review the system at this time.
The NHS Staff Council’s Job Evaluation Group periodically reviews and updates the national role profiles that are used to support job evaluation practice to ensure their accuracy.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when his Department plans to publish the findings of his Department's consultation entitled Consultation on fairer food labelling, which closed on 7 May 2024; and what his planned timetable is for introducing mandatory labelling to support (a) informed consumer choice and (b) higher animal welfare standards.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central, Gareth Snell on 23 December 2024, PQ UIN 20692.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency programme entitled Exploring Climate Cooling on levels of solar power generation.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Advanced Research and Invention Agency’s (ARIA) ‘Exploring Climate Cooling’ programme, backed by £56.8 million, has been designed to build an evidence base which will enable scientists to better understand and properly assess whether or not Earth cooling approaches could help to mitigate climate change safely.
ARIA is an independent research body, and they are conducting cautious, controlled research aimed at improving understanding of the risks and impacts of Solar Radiation Modification. This will produce important information for decisions around the world.
ARIA have put in place an independent oversight committee, made up of international experts, to support effective governance of outdoor experiments and communication of their findings. Projects with field trial components will be subjected to risk and impact assessment by an independent team of experts and subjected to a degree of co-design with local communities; the results of both exercises will be publicly available prior to any outdoor experiment taking place. An independent assessment will also take place on completion of any outdoor experiment, also to be made publicly available.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help tackle the import of hunting trophies of (a) endangered, (b) vulnerable and (c) other species; and whether he plans to include a ban on such imports.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The import of hunting trophies is regulated through the UK Wildlife Trade Regulations, which implements the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
The government committed to banning the import of hunting trophies in its manifesto and we will deliver on this. Defra is engaging with relevant stakeholders to ensure that we can deliver a ban on the import of hunting trophies from species of conservation concern in the most effective way.