Asked by: Jason McCartney (Conservative - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to bring forward proposals in the Green Paper, Advancing our health: prevention in the 2020s, in the upcoming Tobacco Control Plan.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
A new Tobacco Control plan is due to be published later this year and will set out further ambitions to deliver a smoke free country by 2030. Policies for the new plan are currently under development. We will consider all proposals from the 2019 Green Paper, including those on e-cigarettes and addressing smoking in particular vulnerable groups.
Asked by: Jason McCartney (Conservative - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which products are planned to be included in the scope of the proposed ban of TV advertising of products High in Fat, Sugar and Salt (HFSS); and whether only products of particular appeal to children are planned to be banned.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The current proposal is to use the categories originally put forward by Public Health England (PHE) as part of the calorie reduction programme, sugar reduction programme and the soft drinks industry levy overlaying this with the 2004/05 Nutrient Profiling Model. As outlined in our consultations, one of the key objectives of any further advertising restriction was to be targeted at the products of more concern to childhood obesity.
Officials are considering the final list put forward by PHE as well as views fed in as part of the consultation process to come to a final decision on what products are in scope and will publish our full response to the consultation shortly.
Asked by: Jason McCartney (Conservative - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what specific steps his Department will take to enforce restrictions on online advertising of products high in fat, sugar and salt.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
In 2019 and 2020, the Government consulted on proposals to further restrict HFSS advertising on TV and online. We will be publishing the government response to the consultation shortly, which will set out the future policy direction for both TV and online HFSS advertising.
In the 2020 consultation we proposed that the day-to-day responsibility for applying HFSS advertising restrictions be given to the Advertising Standards Authority, recognising their expertise and experience in regulating advertising. Following the current regulatory regime, we propose that breaches would be resolved in line with current ASA policy of responding to individual complaints and promoting voluntary cooperation with the restriction.
If this approach failed or advertisers were committing repeated or severe breaches relating to HFSS marketing material, they would face stronger penalties through a statutory backstop. We would envisage that the backstop regulator would have powers to issue civil sanctions, including the ability to issue fines.
We want to ensure that the enforcement powers of the statutory regulator are designed and used in a way that incentivises compliance and allows for rapid remedial action. The Government will implement any new HFSS advertising restrictions across both online and TV simultaneously by the end of 2022, as outlined in the Tackling Obesity policy published on 27 July 2020.
Asked by: Jason McCartney (Conservative - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to plans to restrict online advertising of products High in Fat, Sugar and Salt (HFSS), whether online platforms are planned to be held legally responsible under statutory rules for making sure that HFSS food and drink advertising does not appear.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The government will shortly publish its response to consultations held in 2019 and 2020 which set out proposals to ban HFSS advertisements being shown on TV before 9pm, and for further statutory measures to restrict HFSS advertising online.
The response will set out the Government’s approach to online liability and enforcement.
Asked by: Jason McCartney (Conservative - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on the roll-out of electric buses in (a) Colne Valley (b) Kirklees and (c) West Yorkshire.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Through the Ultra-Low Emission Bus Scheme (ULEBS), West Yorkshire Combined Authority (which includes both Colne Valley and Kirklees) and First West Yorkshire received £617,000.00 for 5 electric buses and charging infrastructure and £1,770,472.50 for 9 electric buses and charging infrastructure respectively, totalling £2,387,472.50.
Asked by: Jason McCartney (Conservative - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many electric buses are operating in (a) Colne Valley constituency, (b) Kirklees and (c) West Yorkshire.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
We do not hold information on how many buses are operating in a particular area, but we can provide the number of buses & coaches registered in West Yorkshire according to the location of the recorded keeper of each vehicle.
The following table relates to where these vehicles are registered by their keeper, which does not mean they are operated in these areas, nor does it stop other buses & coaches registered elsewhere from operating in these areas.
Table: Registered battery electric buses & coaches at the end of March 2020
Area | Licensed for use on the road | Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) |
Colne Valley constituency | 0 | 1 |
Kirklees | 1 | 1 |
West Yorkshire | 24 | 4 |
Asked by: Jason McCartney (Conservative - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the progress on the delivery of the Transpennine Rail upgrade.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The programme is rapidly progressing into its detailed design phase with early construction enabling activities happening in parallel. Peak construction is expected around 2023/2024 with final completion in the late 2020s.
Asked by: Jason McCartney (Conservative - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when the Transpennine Rail upgrade project will commence.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Upgrades have already been delivered at Micklefield, we are upgrading the Calder Valley route to provide an essential alternative route during the works, and Network Rail is currently consulting on upgrades between Huddersfield and Ravensthorpe to ensure our focus is on better journeys for passengers.
Asked by: Jason McCartney (Conservative - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what route the upgraded Transpennine Rail will take.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
TRU will bring significant improvements to the existing East-West rail link across the North, from York to Manchester via Leeds and Huddersfield.
Asked by: Jason McCartney (Conservative - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of budget required for the Transpennine rail upgrade.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) is a multi-billion pound programme and the Government's biggest single investment in upgrading the country's railway in the next five years. TRU has developed an Outline Business Case that has been going through approval processes this month. Further announcements on the budget will be made as soon as that process completes.