Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they will publish their response to the consultation on remote electronic fishing vessels, which ran from 17 July to 9 October 2023.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We will be publishing responses soon and they will be available on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Southwark (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in allocating the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund 2023 to 2024 for adult social care; and what are their plans for allocation in the financial year 2024–25.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund (MSIF) gives an overall profile of almost £2 billion over two years. Local authorities can choose to use the funding to increase fee rates paid to adult social care providers, increase adult social care workforce capacity and retention, and reduce adult social care waiting times.
In 2023/34, a total of £927 million was made available to local authorities via MSIF, with a further £1.05 billion being made available in 2024/25. The funding has been distributed using the adult social care relative needs formula. Full local authority allocations for 2024/25 are available in the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund Grant Determination 2024 to 2025 on GOV.UK in an online-only format.
Asked by: Lord Ravensdale (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the sites currently listed in the current nuclear National Policy Statement EN-6, will be included in the forthcoming EN-7.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department recently consulted on a proposed policy for siting new nuclear power stations after 2025, which set out a criteria based approach. While EN-7 will be the primary basis for development consent decisions on nuclear power stations after 2025, we recognise that the sites listed in EN-6 are likely to retain many inherent advantages. EN-6 will not be withdrawn, and we expect it to remain an important and relevant consideration in any planning decision for projects at any of the sites listed in EN-6.
Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Garston and Halewood)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what trade missions UK Defence and Security Exports has supported in each year since 2019.
Answered by Alan Mak - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade) (jointly with the Cabinet Office)
UK Defence and Security Exports has supported a number of trade missions since 2019. However, it has not consistently recorded this information because trade missions are not part of the main published UKDSE events programme.
Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Garston and Halewood)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many trade missions UK Defence and Security Exports has supported each year since 2019.
Answered by Alan Mak - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade) (jointly with the Cabinet Office)
UK Defence and Security Exports has supported a number of trade missions since 2019. However, it has not consistently recorded this information because trade missions are not part of the main published UKDSE events programme.
Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Garston and Halewood)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, on how many occasions officials in her Department attended (a) domestic and (b) overseas trade shows which were supported by UK Defence and Security Exports in each year since 2019.
Answered by Alan Mak - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade) (jointly with the Cabinet Office)
This information is not recorded with respect to the whole Department for Business and Trade.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for his policies of the size of the global market for recycled rigid plastics; and what steps his Department is taking to develop (a) recycling capabilities of local authorities and (b) the global market for recycled rigid plastics.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In December 2018, the UK Government published its Resources and Waste Strategy. This sets out how we will achieve a circular economy for plastic and achieve our ambition to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste by 2042. Our goal is to maximise resource efficiency and minimise waste (including plastic) - by following the principles of the waste hierarchy: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – to keep plastic in circulation for longer. We will do this by making producers more responsible for the plastic they make with our incoming Collection and Packaging Reforms.
Simpler Recycling will make recycling clearer and more consistent across England. Local authorities will be required to collect the same materials from households in the following core groups: metal; glass; plastic: paper and card; food waste; garden waste by March 2026 (with plastic film collections being introduced by March 2027). This will reduce confusion with recycling to improve recycling rates, ensuring there is more recycled material in the products we buy, and the UK recycling industry will grow. As well as Simpler Recycling, we are introducing Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging and a Deposit Return Scheme.
To tackle the use of virgin plastics, the Government brought in the Plastic Packaging Tax in April 2022, a tax of over £200 per tonne on plastic packaging manufactured in, or imported into the UK, that does not contain at least 30% recycled plastic. We have since increased the tax to £217.85 per tonne and will continue to monitor the situation and adjust accordingly.
There is a growing global demand for recycled plastics, including recycled rigid plastics. For example, IMARC estimates the size of the global plastic recycling market in 2023 to be $42bn and projects it to grow to $62bn by 2032.
With 35% plastic content, the Government earlier this year consulted on measures to reduce the 155,000 tonnes of small electricals that are thrown in the bin annually. The government response will be published in due course.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the reasons for the recent increase in cases of tuberculosis.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Comprehensive analyses of surveillance data in relation to tuberculosis (TB) in England are published in the UK Health Security Agency’s annual reports, which are available at the following link:
Provisional 2023 data indicates that notifications have increased by over 10%, from 4,380 in 2022 to 4,850 in 2023. Non-United Kingdom born individuals account for an increasing proportion of TB notifications in England, accounting for 79.1% of notifications in 2022. Approximately half of those notifications were within six years of entry to the UK.
People with TB continued to be concentrated in large urban areas, and in the most deprived postcodes. Social risk factors, including alcohol or drug misuse, homelessness, imprisonment, mental health needs, and asylum seeker status, were reported in 16% of individuals notified with TB in 2022.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to ensure that the Major Conditions Strategy includes additional material on mental health.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Since announcing the Major Conditions Strategy in January 2023, we have been working with a range of stakeholders in the health and care system, including those representing mental health conditions. This is to identify what would make the most difference in tackling the six major condition groups, which includes mental health, that account for approximately 60% of ill-health and early death in England.
The strategy will consider how we can ensure that mental health is effectively integrated with physical health, as well as delivering preventative, proactive, and person-centred care across the major conditions. This strategy does not seek to describe everything that is being done or could be done to meet the challenges of individual conditions in isolation, it instead focuses on the changes likely to make the most difference across the six groups of major conditions.
Asked by: Kwasi Kwarteng (Conservative - Spelthorne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that maternity and neonatal complaints systems are (a) transparent and (b) compassionate for parents.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Anyone has the right to make a complaint about any aspect of National Health Service care, treatment, or service. The NHS Complaint Standards set out how organisations providing NHS services should approach complaint handling. They apply to NHS organisations in England, and independent healthcare providers that deliver NHS-funded care.
If complainants need assistance in making a complaint, officers from the Patient Advice and Liaison Service are available in most hospitals. Additionally, assistance can also be provided by the Independent NHS Complaints Advocacy Service.