Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to give tenants the right to keep pets in (a) rented accommodation and (b) leasehold properties.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Government recognises that pets can bring joy and comfort to their owners, as well as supporting their mental and physical wellbeing.
The Renters (Reform) Bill will ensure that private landlords cannot unreasonably refuse a request from their tenant to keep a pet. The Bill provides added flexibility where they need to obtain consent of a superior landlord when considering a request. We know that some landlords are concerned about the potential damage caused by pets, so we will also allow landlords to require insurance covering pet damage.
The ability of a leaseholder to keep a pet will depend on the terms of individual leases. We are due to bring forward further leasehold reforms later in this Parliament. Where leases restrict the keeping of pets however, this would be a matter for individual leaseholders to raise with their landlord.
Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children were (a) on a waiting list for an assessment and (b) waiting for a diagnosis for (i) attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and (ii) Autism spectrum disorder on 1 September 2023.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Data on the number of children on a waiting list for an assessment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) assessments and waiting for a diagnosis is not held centrally but may be held locally by individual National Health Service trusts. The Department is investigating options for improving data collection and reporting on waiting times for ADHD assessments and diagnoses, to help improve access to ADHD assessments in a timely way and in line with the NICE guideline on ADHD.
With respect to autism, NHS England publishes data on how many people are waiting for an autism diagnosis and for how long, which provides useful information nationally and locally to support local areas to improve their performance and to reduce assessment and diagnosis waiting times.
The statistics published on 8 June 2023 provide data up to 31 March 2023. Of the total 157,579 patients with an open referral for suspected autism (diagnosis not yet complete) in March 2023, 92,622 were aged zero to 17 years. 6,940 of this age group with an open referral received a first contact appointment within 13 weeks. Data on children and young people in this dataset is expected to be an underestimate. The next data release will be published on 14 September.
The current reported autism data comes from the Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS) only. Several providers of MHSDS data were affected by a cyber incident which impacted the data for August 2022 onwards. Data presented for August 2022 onwards are imputed estimates based on data from providers not impacted by the cyber incident. The trends and activity reported by these providers are, for the most part, reflective of the providers who were impacted by the cyber incident. However, caution should be used when interpreting these statistics.
Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what support her Department is providing to small businesses and local health services to protect them from economic crime.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
We have strengthened our fight against economic crime through the publication of the landmark Economic Crime Plan in July 2019, which brought together government, law enforcement and the private sector in cooperation to deliver a whole system response to economic crime.
The total Spending Review 2021 settlement and the Economic Crime Levy represent an overall package of circa £400 million to tackle economic crime over the next three years, including fraud. This is in addition to the funding that the Home Office commits each year to the National Economic Crime Centre in the NCA, and police forces.
Tackling fraud requires a unified and co-ordinated response from government, law enforcement and the private sector to better protect the public and businesses of all sizes, reduce the impact on victims, and increase the disruption and prosecution of fraudsters. This is why the Home Office will shortly be publishing a new strategy to address the threat of fraud.
Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the percentage of police resources devoted to tackling economic crime in each of the last three years.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
Fraud, money laundering and bribery related offences, typically considered to be economic crime, made up 16% of all police recorded crime in the year to September 2022.
Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what percentage of all recorded crime was classed as an economic crime in each of the last three years.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
Fraud, money laundering and bribery related offences, typically considered to be economic crime, made up 16% of all police recorded crime in the year to September 2022.
Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of NHS staff have received the flu vaccination in (a) 2022 and (b) each of the last five years.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The following table shows the number of frontline National Health Service healthcare workers (HCWs) vaccinated with the flu vaccine, for each of the last five years.
| Number of HCWs with direct patient care where vaccination data has been provided | Numbers vaccinated | Percentage vaccine uptake |
1 September 2022 to 30 November 2022 | 1,105,078 | 461,803 | 41.8% |
1 September 2021 to 28 February 2022 | 813,435 | 492,125 | 60.5% |
1 September 2020 to 28 February 2021 | 1,124,370 | 863,792 | 76.8% |
1 September 2019 to 28 February 2020 | 1,040,360 | 772,872 | 74.3% |
1 September 2018 to 28 February 2019 | 1,051,851 | 739,187 | 70.3% |
1 September 2017 to 28 February 2018 | 1,025,547 | 704,242 | 68.7% |
Source:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seasonal-influenza-and-covid-19-vaccine-uptake-in-frontline-healthcare-workers-monthly-data-2022-to-2023
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seasonal-flu-and-covid-19-vaccine-uptake-in-frontline-healthcare-workers-monthly-data-2021-to-2022
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seasonal-flu-vaccine-uptake-in-healthcare-workers-monthly-data-2020-to-2021
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seasonal-flu-vaccine-uptake-in-healthcare-workers-monthly-data-2019-to-2020
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seasonal-flu-vaccine-uptake-in-healthcare-workers-monthly-data-2018-to-2019
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seasonal-flu-vaccine-uptake-in-healthcare-workers-monthly-data-2017-to-2018
Notes:
Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make it his policy to cap the price of energy for GP surgeries.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Energy Bill Relief Scheme for non-domestic customers was announced on 21 September and details can be found at the link below:
Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking towards setting benefit-in-kind taxation rates for 2025-26; and what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Transport on the potential impact of those rates on the adoption of electric vehicles.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Like all taxes, benefit-in-kind tax rates for company cars, also known as Company Car Tax (CCT), are kept under review. The Government aims to announce CCT rates at least two years ahead of implementation to provide certainty for employers, employees and fleet operators.
Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to confirm Primary PE and Sports Premium funding allocations for young children.
Answered by Will Quince
The department is aware of the importance of giving primary schools as much notice as possible of the funding for the PE and sport premium in order to support its effective use. The department will confirm the level of funding for the PE and sport premium for the 2022/23 academic year in due course.
Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will regulate cat breeding as part of the Post Implementation Review of The Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 which is due by October 2023.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The 2018 Regulations are due to be reviewed five years after they came into force (2023) and so this will be an appropriate time to re-examine the scope of the Regulations and consider any changes.
During the review we will consider all aspects of the Regulations, including whether there is a need to explore introducing licencing arrangements for cat breeders.
As part of planning for this review, we are proactively working with partners, including local authorities, to collate data that can provide a picture of licensed and unlicensed activities involving animals in England. A wide range of stakeholders, key trade associations, and the Canine and Feline Sector Group will be integral to coordinating input from this diverse sector to inform Defra’s review.