Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she plans to direct the Horse Race Betting Levy Board to increase the proportion of the levy for aftercare provision for vulnerable horses leaving the racing industry.

Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Government is aware of the vital work the horseracing industry does in supporting and retraining former racehorses. However, we have no current plans to direct the Levy Board to make amends to levy schemes.

The Horserace Betting Levy Board’s expenditure covers all its three statutory purposes, all of which support horse welfare to some extent, with one of their goals to drive high quality care and support for the horse in Racing. In total, the Horserace Betting Levy Board spends around £3.5 million annually on horse-related areas, such as educational research and on a number of horse welfare projects. The Levy Board funds the Retraining of Racehorses charity, which is British Horseracing's official charity for the welfare of horses who have retired from racing.

The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) is responsible for the safety of horses at races in Britain and works with animal welfare organisations like the RSPCA and World Horse Welfare to keep racecourses as safe as possible for horses. The British Horseracing Authority created a cross-industry Horse Welfare Board in April 2019. The Board makes recommendations including a multi-year strategy for improving welfare. In February 2020, the Welfare Board published its five-year strategic plan for the welfare of horses bred for racing. The strategy focuses on the ambition that every horse bred to race should lead – and be seen to lead – “a life well-lived”. The Horse Welfare Board is funded by the HBLB and The Racing Foundation.

Furthermore, in April 2024 the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) and Great British Racing (GBR) launched a new campaign, HorsePWR, designed to promote the facts around welfare in horseracing and challenge and correct inaccurate information shared by people who are opposed to it.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will have discussions with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on (a) increasing penalties for wildlife crime, (b) widening the range of wildlife crimes which receive notifiable status and (c) incorporating wildlife crime into the Policing Education Qualification Framework.

Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government takes crimes against wildlife seriously. In 2022 Defra more than doubled its funding of the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) from a total of £495,000 over the three previous years to £1.2 million for the three-year period of 2022-25.

Significant sanctions are already available to judges to hand down to those convicted of wildlife crimes - up to an unlimited fine and/or a six-month custodial sentence. Furthermore, the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021 realises the Government’s manifesto commitment to increase the sentences available to our courts for the most serious cases of animal cruelty – including acts against wildlife - by increasing the maximum penalty for this offence to five years’ imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine. Sentencing those convicted of wildlife crimes is, however, a matter for judges; these decisions are rightly taken independently of Government.

Defra has actively supported stakeholders in making representations to the Home Office regarding the issue of making wildlife crimes notifiable. However, regardless of notifiable status, when it comes to responding to the most prevalent wildlife crimes, Chief Constables have operational independence to tackle the crimes that matter most to their communities.

Wildlife crime is not mandated as authorised professional practice and therefore is not a training requirement via the College of Policing. However, the NWCU (funded to a large degree by Defra) currently provides training to police officers across the UK. This training reflects the National Police Chiefs' Council wildlife crime strategy and provides comprehensive training in UK wildlife crime priorities and emerging trends. Since November 2022 the NWCU has trained 890 officers and is in the process of building a comprehensive digital training platform for wildlife crime which police officers and police staff will be able to access nationwide. Additionally, the NWCU provides a digital information hub for almost 1000 police staff, with up-to-date guidance on investigating wildlife crime.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps to end the lethal dose 50% process for testing of substances on groups of animals; and if he will have discussions with the Secretary of State for the Home Department about increasing funding for non-animal methodologies in substance testing.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The UK supports work to develop New Approach Methodologies which can provide information on chemical hazards and risk assessment without the use of animals.

The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) is the UK regulatory authority for veterinary medicines. The VMD assesses applications submitted by the veterinary pharmaceutical industry in line with national and international regulations and guidance to ensure safe and effective veterinary medicines of good quality are marketed. These requirements may therefore necessitate animal testing either to develop and register new veterinary medicines or for routine product quality control, to ensure the continued quality, safety and efficacy batch to batch. Non-animal tests are not always available. The VMD is committed to phasing out the use of animals for testing purposes where possible, in accordance with the principles of 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement). Furthermore, the UK is a signatory to the European Pharmacopoeia (which sets minimum quality standards of medicines) and the European Convention for the Protection of Vertebrate Animals used for Experimental and Other Scientific Purposes. This commitment to the 3Rs is also enshrined in the UK’s Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 under which scientific procedures in animals are regulated.

The Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation (the hon. Member for Arundel and South Downs, Andrew Griffith) recently announced that the Government will publish a plan to accelerate the development, validation and uptake of technologies and methods to reduce reliance on the use of animals in science, which will be published in the summer. He also requested that we double our investment in research to achieve these approaches next year to £20 million across the system in 2024/25.

LD50 testing is not required for preclinical development of novel medicines. Some authorised medicines in the UK include (LD50) quality control tests which require the use of animals, conducted to ensure the quality, safety and efficacy of specific medicines. UK regulators follow the principles of the 3Rs. Significant progress has been made on validating alternative methods which do not use animals, including the possibility of replacing mice by in vitro suitable cell cultures in LD50-type testing methods, and the relevant regulatory quality standards and testing requirements have been revised accordingly for these specific medicines.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of adapting HTM 01-04: Decontamination of linen for health and social care guidance to include plastics and linen substitutes.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

No assessment has been made of the potential merits of adapting HTM 01-04: Decontamination of linen for health and social care guidance, to include plastics and linen substitutes.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of bringing forward (a) legislative proposals to amend the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and (b) other legislative proposals to reclassify catapults as illegal weapons when used to harm wildlife.

Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government takes crimes against wildlife seriously, including those involving the use of catapults. The Government has no current plans though to amend the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which protects all wild birds and some wild animals in England and Wales.

While the Act does not include catapults in the list of weapons that a person must not use to kill an animal, it is still illegal under this Act to deliberately attempt to kill, injure, or harm protected species. There are a range of offences around deliberate attempts to kill, injure or inflict harm on wildlife under provisions not just in this Act, but also in the Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996 and in the Animal Welfare Act 2006.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment she has made of the impact of the relative increase in the cost of stamps on the ability of customers to send (a) letters and (b) greeting cards.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government does not have a role in Royal Mail's commercial decisions, including the prices of stamps and other services.  In setting its prices, Royal Mail must observe the regulatory framework set by Ofcom which imposes price controls, 'safeguard caps', on certain second-class products to ensure a basic universal service is available to all at affordable prices.

Ofcom reviewed the safeguard caps in 2023, including the impact of price rises on consumers and small and medium sized enterprises, and on 24 January 2024 announced its decision on the retail price caps that would apply to Royal Mail's universal postal services from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2027.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment she has made of the impact of the relative increase in the cost of stamps on small businesses that (a) design and (b) sell greeting cards.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government does not have a role in Royal Mail's commercial decisions, including the prices of stamps and other services.  In setting its prices, Royal Mail must observe the regulatory framework set by Ofcom which imposes price controls, 'safeguard caps', on certain second-class products to ensure a basic universal service is available to all at affordable prices.

Ofcom reviewed the safeguard caps in 2023, including the impact of price rises on consumers and small and medium sized enterprises, and on 24 January 2024 announced its decision on the retail price caps that would apply to Royal Mail's universal postal services from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2027.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of trends in the level of the cost of stamps on small businesses.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government does not have a role in Royal Mail's commercial decisions, including the prices of stamps and other services.  In setting its prices, Royal Mail must observe the regulatory framework set by Ofcom which imposes price controls, 'safeguard caps', on certain second-class products to ensure a basic universal service is available to all at affordable prices.

Ofcom reviewed the safeguard caps in 2023, including the impact of price rises on consumers and small and medium sized enterprises, and on 24 January 2024 announced its decision on the retail price caps that would apply to Royal Mail's universal postal services from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2027.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to remove the 50% cap on faith-based admissions at (a) academies and (b) free schools.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The diversity of schools in this country is one of our education system’s most valuable assets and faith schools play a pivotal role in that by providing high-quality school places and choice for parents. This government remains committed in its support for faith schools.

Faith school providers, including churches, are among the largest providers of academy trusts. As the department moves to an education system that is increasingly based on schools being part of strong academy trusts, the department needs to ensure that it is making the best and full use of the talents of all trusts. This includes having mechanism in place for all providers to open new schools.

As the department continues to uphold diversity and quality education for all, it is keeping all policies, including the 50% faith admissions cap for free schools with a faith designation, under review to ensure that this country’s education system is world leading.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what steps he is taking to support peace and human rights in Colombia.

Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

During my visit to Colombia in March, I [Minister Rutley] met with Vice Foreign Minister Coy and discussed our ongoing support for peace and stability in Colombia. Since 2016, the UK has committed £80 million towards supporting the implementation of the 2016 Peace Agreement and improving the security and the human rights situation.

World Press Freedom Day

Diagnosing Coeliac disease

Rana Plaza in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Public ownership of water

Scrutiny of the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs and arms exports to Israel

Pesticide use in towns and cities

Trans+ History Week

Government surveillance of bank accounts

Price cap on baby milk formula

World Malaria Day 2024

Shrewsbury to London Euston Avanti West Coast service

Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund and Nestlé

Immigration changes for carers and Ukrainians

Lesbian Visibility Week

Childcare for working parents

Border Force staff at Heathrow Airport

Two-child benefits limit

Civil Service Pay

Found: During the Committee session in March, your colleague, Ian Byrne MP, asked us to provide further details

Found: Tuesday 10 January 2023 Members present Sir Robert Goodwill, in the Chair Steven Bonnar Ian Byrne

Found: Q237 Ian Byrne: Thanks, Chair.

Found: Byrne John McDonnell .

Found: Byrne John McDonnell .

Found: Byrne John McDonnell .

Found: Byrne .

Found: Not called _38 Nadia Whittome Caroline Lucas Afzal Khan Ian Byrne Charlotte Nichols Kate Osborne

Found: _38 Nadia Whittome Caroline Lucas Afzal Khan Ian Byrne Charlotte Nichols Kate Osborne Zarah

Found: Byrne .

Found: _38 Nadia Whittome Caroline Lucas Afzal Khan Ian Byrne Charlotte Nichols Kate Osborne Zarah

Found: Byrne .