Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with which (a) people and (b) organisations the AI Safety Institute (i) consulted and (ii) collaborated in developing the Inspect toolset; and whether international AI safety bodies were (A) consulted and (B) involved in collaboration.
Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The AI Safety Institute is the first state-backed organisation focused on advancing AI safety for the public interest. Safety evaluations for frontier AI systems are often built in non-standardised formats, making it difficult for other organisations to reproduce and verify them. Inspect was developed by AI Safety Institute technical staff in response to this problem. Since making Inspect open-source, technical staff have briefed major AI labs, safety research organisations, academics and government experts on its potential use cases. This should enable closer collaboration across the AI Safety research ecosystem.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to monitor the potential impact of the Inspect platform on global AI safety standards.
Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Inspect platform has the potential to unlock more seamless collaboration between AI safety researchers across the world by improving the standardisation and repeatability of safety evaluations. The AI Safety Institute will monitor the uptake of Inspect by drawing on usage data from GitHub, where the toolkit is available for anyone to access, and will continue to engage with AI safety researchers and developers to continue to improve the model. The upcoming AI Seoul Summit will be a valuable forum to deepen AISI’s global collaboration efforts on AI Safety standards.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 enhance the monitoring of industrial pollution from (a) the new power station, (b) the Grundon energy from waste plant in Colnbrook and (c) other sites in Slough.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Industrial activities in England are regulated under the Environmental Permitting Regulations (England and Wales) 2016. All large industrial facilities, such as large combustion plants and energy from waste, are regulated by the Environment Agency (EA) and must comply with environmental permits, use best available techniques (BAT) to reduce emissions to air, water and land, and monitor and report their emissions. The BAT approach ensures standards are enhanced over time by defining the available techniques which are the best for preventing or minimising emissions and impacts on the environment.
The EA inspects and audits industrial installations to ensure they are complying with the requirements of their permits. For example, energy from waste sites have continuous air emissions monitoring for key pollutants which all plants must carry out. Smaller sites are regulated by local authorities. Control and monitoring requirements of emissions to air are set through a BAT approach which informs permit requirements.
The EA has confirmed that the current monitoring of industrial pollution of the sites it regulates in Slough meets all of the requirements set out in the Industrial Emissions Directive. There is an accreditation standard for monitoring of all industrial emissions.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department takes to ensure that prisoners released under the End of Custody Supervised License scheme (a) are adequately supervised and (b) do not pose a risk to public safety.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
ECSL brings forward the normal release of some offenders. There are strict eligibility criteria which exclude the most serious and dangerous offenders, including all sexual and serious violent offenders. Offenders who may be eligible for release under these arrangements will be subject to the same set of licence conditions that would apply had they been released automatically. Unlike Labour’s early release scheme, which ran for three years and released over 80,000 prisoners, all offenders released under ECSL are subject to strict licence conditions.
Those licence conditions will reflect the risk management release plan prepared by probation staff and what is necessary to safely manage the offender in the community. The offender can be immediately recalled to prison if they do not comply or otherwise behave in a way that is assessed to be putting the public at risk.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, whether his Department is taking steps to help support civilians fleeing from (a) Vovchansk and (b) other towns near Kharkiv in the context of recent attacks in that area.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
We are deeply concerned about the current situation around Kharkiv and the ongoing attacks by Russia. UK partners on the ground are operating in this challenging context to provide support to displaced people and those affected near frontline areas, where humanitarian needs are already most severe and access to basic services is most constrained. To date, we have committed £357 million in humanitarian support to Ukraine and the region, which includes support to evacuate from frontline areas. Our partners are coordinating their efforts with the Government of Ukraine who are leading the response.
We will continue to monitor the situation around Kharkiv as it develops.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made a comparative assessment of the impact of ultra-processed foods on public health in (a) the UK and (b) other countries; and whether she has made an assessment of the impact of the UK exiting the EU on levels of consumption of ultra-processed food.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
United Kingdom dietary recommendations are based on independent advice from the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN). In July 2023, the SACN published a position statement on processed foods and health, summarising a scoping review of the evidence on food processing and health. The statement can be accessed via the following link:
The statement included an evaluation of the methods of applying the ultra-processed food (UPF) definition in the UK, the suitability of such methods, and consideration of the availability and quality of evidence on food processing and health.
It made reference to international policy and recommendations with respect to food processing and estimates of processed food consumption in the United States and France. The statement notes that estimated average UPF consumption in the United States was comparable to estimates conducted for the UK. Estimated average UPF consumption in France was somewhat lower than the UK. However, it is unclear if this is due to differences in dietary patterns, data collection methods, the methods used to estimate UPF consumption, or a combination of some, or all, of these issues.
The SACN concluded that observed associations between UPF and health are concerning, but it is unclear whether these foods are inherently unhealthy due to processing or due to their nutritional content. Given the SACN’s concerns, the committee has added the topic of processed foods to its watching brief and will consider it at its next horizon scan meeting in June 2024. No specific assessment has been made of the impact of the UK exiting the European Union on levels of UPF consumption.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of consumption of ultra-processed foods on health.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
United Kingdom dietary recommendations are based on independent advice from the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN). In July 2023, the SACN published a position statement on processed foods and health, summarising a scoping review of the evidence on food processing and health. The statement can be accessed via the following link:
The statement included an evaluation of the methods of applying the ultra-processed food (UPF) definition in the UK, the suitability of such methods, and consideration of the availability and quality of evidence on food processing and health.
It made reference to international policy and recommendations with respect to food processing and estimates of processed food consumption in the United States and France. The statement notes that estimated average UPF consumption in the United States was comparable to estimates conducted for the UK. Estimated average UPF consumption in France was somewhat lower than the UK. However, it is unclear if this is due to differences in dietary patterns, data collection methods, the methods used to estimate UPF consumption, or a combination of some, or all, of these issues.
The SACN concluded that observed associations between UPF and health are concerning, but it is unclear whether these foods are inherently unhealthy due to processing or due to their nutritional content. Given the SACN’s concerns, the committee has added the topic of processed foods to its watching brief and will consider it at its next horizon scan meeting in June 2024. No specific assessment has been made of the impact of the UK exiting the European Union on levels of UPF consumption.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps his Department has taken to (a) improve recycling infrastructure and (b) reduce plastic waste exports.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In the Resources and Waste Strategy, we have committed to taking actions which will help to stimulate private investment in reprocessing and recycling infrastructure.
We are introducing Collection and Packaging Reforms made up of Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging, Simpler Recycling and a Deposit Return Scheme for drinks containers. Through these reforms we want to significantly increase domestic reprocessing and recycling capacity by both increasing investors’ confidence and improving the competitiveness of UK reprocessing.
Our existing Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations have led to investment in waste infrastructure to process end of life electrical and electronic equipment.
We encourage the development of infrastructure for plastic reprocessing to ensure the UK meets its recycling targets as well as supporting these collection and packaging reforms.
Additionally, HM Treasury’s plastic packaging tax is expected to increase demand for secondary material plastic and increasing reprocessing infrastructure will help meet this demand. Reprocessing infrastructure enables the value of resource use to be maximised as well as waste arisings and its impact on the environment to be minimised.
These actions are all intended to increase the amount of plastic waste we recycle domestically so we can reduce our dependency on plastic waste exports.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps his Department has taken to help increase the adoption of electric vehicles.
Answered by Anthony Browne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Government grants have been in place for over a decade to help reduce the up-front purchase price of electric vehicles, with over £1.8 billion in grant funding provided since 2011. Grants remain available for vans, trucks, wheelchair accessible vehicles and taxis. Favourable tax benefits also remain in place to support the transition to EVs.
These policies are working. March 2024 saw the highest ever recorded volume of monthly battery electric vehicle registrations in the UK, with manufacturers reporting over 48,000 vehicles sold.
As stated in the Plan for Drivers, the Government will also continue to support the uptake of zero emission vehicles, by addressing common misconceptions and showing how they can be a practical option for most drivers.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he plans to take to support small businesses with cash banking, in the context of closures of physical banks.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
In recognition that cash continues to be used by millions of people across the UK, including those in vulnerable circumstances, the government legislated through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 to establish a new legislative framework to protect access to cash. This establishes the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as the lead regulator for access to cash and provides it with responsibility and powers to seek to ensure reasonable provision of cash withdrawal and deposit facilities.
Following this legislation, the government published a Cash Access Policy Statement. This set out that the vast majority of people should be no further than 1 mile from access to cash deposit and withdrawal services in predominately urban areas, and no further than 3 miles in predominately rural areas. The FCA is required to have regard to this statement when exercising its access to cash powers.
The government considers that this legislation will support businesses to continue accepting cash by ensuring they have reasonable access to deposit facilities.
The FCA recently held a consultation on its proposed regulatory approach: FCA Access to Cash Consultation. The FCA is currently considering feedback and expects to publish its final rules in the third quarter of this year.