Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to the letter sent by the hon. Member for St Albans on 16 November 2022, and subsequently resent on 20 January and 20 March 2023, reference DC5119.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
I replied to the hon. Member on 17 April 2023.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what modelling his Department has carried out to assess the potential impact of its swap to stop policy on the Government's ability to achieve its smoke free 2030 target.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Education)
Modelling for our Swap to Stop policy has to date been based on effective pilot schemes across the country. For example, in Salford a pilot successfully engaged with over 1,000 smokers, many of whom were from the most deprived communities. Of those smokers who remained engaged in the four-week scheme, 62% were recorded as having successfully quit, by means of carbon monoxide verification. This is a fourfold increase in the number of successful quitters compared to the equivalent period the year before, when the scheme had not been in operation.
As announced on 11 April 2023, our vision for the new national Swap to Stop scheme is to offer a million smokers a free vaping kit alongside expert behavioural support. The impact of the scheme on our Smokefree 2030 ambition will be further modelled following the completion of the first wave of the programme in the coming months.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on the potential impact on (a) antimicrobial resistance and (b) the effectiveness of antibiotics used to treat human illnesses of a ban on the preventative use of antibiotics on healthy farm animals.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The Government takes a ‘One-Health’ approach to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as set out in the ‘UK 5-year action plan for antimicrobial resistance 2019 to 2024’. Officials from the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Veterinary Medicines Directorate meet regularly to consider appropriate actions to address AMR across the human and animal health sectors. This has included discussion on the preventative use of antibiotics in healthy farm animals and a consultation on proposed changes to Veterinary Medicines Regulations.
Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has plans to monitor the volume of storm overflow events.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Using powers in the landmark Environment Act, we will significantly improve transparency by requiring companies to make discharge data available in near real time to the public and monitor water quality upstream and downstream of their assets.
The Environment Agency has instructed water companies to install flow monitors at 2000 wastewater treatment works. These provide important data on the volume of treated final effluent discharges to the environment.
Earlier this month, the Government launched our consultation on Continuous Water Quality Monitoring and Event Duration Monitoring. This outlines the Government’s proposals to enhance the monitoring of storm overflow and final effluent discharges.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions her Department has had with (a) Ofwat and (b) other regulatory bodies on linking the pay of senior water company executives and directors to performance.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Government have been clear that companies must be transparent about aligning water company bonuses payment to delivery of services for customers, including environmental performance.
We have had discussions with Ofwat on company performance, including the need to increase transparency. We are pleased that, in December 2022, Ofwat strengthened its powers on executive pay awards by setting out that shareholders, and not customers, will fund pay awards where companies do not demonstrate their decisions on pay awards reflects overall performance. We support Ofwat’s new guidance on the scope and implementation of this new measure, published in March 2023.
This new measure will provide positive steps to protecting consumer interest and our environment.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent estimate her Department has made on the average amount added to domestic water bills as a result of constructing new sewer systems.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Water infrastructure is funded through customer bills. Every five years, Ofwat sets an overall cap on the total amount that each water company may recover from their customers, through a process called the Price Review. As part of this process Ofwat balances the interests of the consumers with the ability for companies to finance the delivery of its services, including the removal of sewerage from homes and its treatment.
The current price review period runs from 2020-2025 and the level of investment in this period is £51 billion. The average household bill is £448 in 2023-24, of which £233 is spent on sewerage services, which includes building and maintaining sewer pipes, pumping sewage to treatment works, treatment, flowing cleaned and treated wastewater back into rivers and the sea and converting solid material from sewage into gas for energy.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he plans to raise the issue of the mandatory residential school-system in Tibet with his Chinese counterparts at the G7.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan
We are aware of reports of human rights violations in Tibet, including severe restrictions on Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB), Tibetans dying in custody, coercive control, labour transfer schemes and Tibetan parents being coerced and intimidated into sending their children to boarding schools. We continue to raise the situation in Tibet with the Chinese authorities. We also coordinate with partners to draw international attention to the human rights situation in Tibet. In June 2022, a UK led lobbying effort helped to secure the support of 46 other countries for a joint statement at the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) which highlighted the situation in Tibet and called on the Chinese authorities to abide by their human rights obligations. In March, we raised the issue of boarding schools in our Item 4 statement at the UN HRC. We will continue to press China to cease human rights violations.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions he has had with his Chinese counterparts on the mandatory residential school system for children in Tibet.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan
We are aware of reports of human rights violations in Tibet, including severe restrictions on Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB), Tibetans dying in custody, coercive control, labour transfer schemes and Tibetan parents being coerced and intimidated into sending their children to boarding schools. We continue to raise the situation in Tibet with the Chinese authorities. We also coordinate with partners to draw international attention to the human rights situation in Tibet. In June 2022, a UK led lobbying effort helped to secure the support of 46 other countries for a joint statement at the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) which highlighted the situation in Tibet and called on the Chinese authorities to abide by their human rights obligations. In March, we raised the issue of boarding schools in our Item 4 statement at the UN HRC. We will continue to press China to cease human rights violations.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what further steps she is taking to help tackle surface water flooding; what steps her Department is taking to prevent new developments being automatically connected to existing sewers instead of developers being required to install improved drainage systems to new developments; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Surface water flooding is localised and complex and is the responsibility of lead local flood authorities (LLFAs) to manage and mitigate. They do this in partnership with highways authorities and water companies. It is for LLFAs to determine the best approach to mitigating the risk.
The Government is also taking action. In July 2021 we restated our commitment to ensuring surface water flood risk is tackled and published a progress update on our Surface Water Management Action Plan and our response to the independent review into surface water and drainage responsibilities. Progress is being made on these, with over 60% of actions already complete.
The Government has reviewed making sustainable systems (SuDS) mandatory in new developments and the review was published on 10 January 2023. The Government accepted the review’s recommendation to mandate SuDS through implementing Schedule 3 to the Flood and Water Management Act 2010. SuDS use features such as ponds, rain gardens and grass to absorb the rain and tanks and pipes to slow the flow to the sewer, reducing the risk of surface water and sewer flooding. Schedule 3 will also make the right to connect surface water to public sewers conditional on the drainage system being approved as meeting the mandatory sustainable drainage standards. This will help limit volumes entering drainage networks which will help ease the pressure on the sewerage system and mitigate flood risk. The Government is now considering how best to implement this in terms of scope, threshold, and process and there will be a public consultation later this year.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions he has had on coordinated action against the junta in Myanmar with his international counterparts in that region.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan
The UK is committed to working closely with international partners to coordinate robust action against the Myanmar military. We acknowledge and highlight the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) centrality, reaffirming the regional bloc's strong leadership on the response to the Myanmar crisis. The UK led the UN Security Council Resolution adopted on 21 December 2022 demands an end to violence and urges immediate action by the military regime to fully implement the ASEAN Five Point Consensus and release all those arbitrarily detained.